It's almost like Fox News can beat the competition with one host tied behind its back.

The cable news ratings for last Friday are out, and -- no surprise here -- Fox News is still dominant. What's a shocker is how dominant -- and how they didn't even need the titular host of one of its shows around for the whole week for it to beat every other CNN program.

Not that this was hard, considering the "sorry, but your flight's been delayed" network couldn't even get a program in the top 30.

Cable News Rankings Fri Mar 10

1⃣@TuckerCarlson
2⃣@TheFive @DanaPerino @JesseBWatters @JudgeJeanine @HaroldFordJr @Kilmeade*
3⃣@JessePrimetime
4⃣@BretBaier
5⃣@SeanHannity
6⃣@GutfeldFox! @PlanetTyrus*
7⃣8⃣@DanaPerino @BillHemmer
9⃣@FoxandFriends
🔟@OutnumberedFNC pic.twitter.com/r2iniqi8dH

— RoadMN 📈 (@RoadMN) March 13, 2023

Note that in sixth place was Greg Gutfeld's late-night show. And yet, on Friday, he wasn't even hosting it -- turning duties over to one of his panelists, Tyrus.

TONIGHT! Guest Host @PlanetTyrus welcomes @KennedyNation, @leezeldin, @dagenmcdowell and @KatTimpf. Tune in at 11pm ET on @FoxNews! pic.twitter.com/BMeVkAO5TV

— Gutfeld! (@Gutfeldfox) March 10, 2023

Tonight @Gutfeldfox is going to be hosted @nwa world heavyweight champion #tyrussmash see you tonight !!!!! #nuffsaid pic.twitter.com/9AeoiZwfJa

— Tyrus (@PlanetTyrus) March 10, 2023

Number one was "Tucker Carlson Tonight" -- which stayed on top despite what Mediaite described as "a bruising week thanks to the revelations regarding the gulf between his private and public beliefs (I hate Trump passionately, etc.) as well as his controversial commentary on the Jan. 6 attack at the US Capitol (sightseeing, etc.)"

Not to say that this was an accurate assessment of anything that actually happened, mind you -- Mediaite is gonna Mediaite, after all -- but it's worth noting that the overblown controversies surrounding his text messages about Donald Trump in the wake of the 2020 election and the decision to let viewers decide for themselves whether or not the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021, was actually an "insurrection" by airing footage that threw a spanner into the media narrative didn't hurt viewership any.

He garnered 3.09 million viewers on Friday.

Numbers two, three, four and five -- and for that matter every show from one to 15 in the rankings -- were Fox News productions, as well.

[firefly_poll]

"The Five" was No. 2 with 2.91 million viewers, "Jesse Watters Primetime" third with 2.43 million, "Special Report with Bret Baier" fourth with 1.99 million, and "Hannity" fifth with 1.87 million.

"Gutfeld!" -- even on a day that didn't include Greg Gutfeld -- was sixth with 1.65 million. In other words, the host and main attraction can take the day off and still beat CNN handily.

The top non-Fox show was "Deadline: White House" on MSNBC, with 1.25 million viewers.

And as for CNN: Oof.

The network is in the process of doing a 180 under new head Chris Licht and trying to get back to hard news, if perhaps with a leftist bent. How that pans out in the long run is anyone's guess, but the highest-rated CNN show was "Inside Politics," coming in at No. 32 with 621,000 viewers.

[ic_related]

And, as I'm sure you're all wondering, "CNN This Morning" came in at a disappointing -- yet wholly unsurprising -- No. 47 for its 8 a.m. hour, with 487,000 viewers. (The rankings count hourly, and the Don Lemon/Kaitlan Collins/Poppy Harlow dumpster fire morning show/gossip mill also ranked at No. 48 and No. 51 for its 7 a.m. and 6 a.m. hours, respectively.)

Maybe Don Lemon is past his prime? Just a thought.

Of course, this runs counter to the whole narrative you've heard lately, which is that Fox is a fringe network of extremist charlatans recruiting domestic terrorists.

And no, that's not an exercise in hyperbole. Here's the gaggle of strident flibbertigibbets on "The View" suggesting Fox News be shut down by the government and that Tucker Carlson allowing America to see Jan. 6 footage for themselves was Orwellian. (Irony isn't just dead on the set of "The View," it's a putrefied corpse at this point.)

NEW—The View's Whoopi Goldberg claims Tucker Carlson "took a page from George Orwell's '1984' and told his viewers to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears...They saw what they saw."

Actually Whoopi, we never saw any of this footage before. That's precisely the point! pic.twitter.com/zOqsuUv2D3

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 7, 2023

Whoopi Goldberg suggests that the government should shut down Fox News and prosecute everyone there for "recruiting" domestic terrorists.
And she also claims the First Amendment has limits: "[It] doesn't allow you to willingly lie."
Meanwhile, The View is a cesspool of misinfo. pic.twitter.com/7RkUjBWoZN

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 8, 2023

Yes, Fox News is a network so extremist and beyond the pale that ... it produces the top 15 most-watched shows on cable news.

Right. Keep going with that line and see how it works for you, liberal media. For 25 years and counting, that and a $1.50 will get you a hot dog at Costco and absolutely nothing else.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.