‘Wake Up Barstool’ opens to dreadful viewership on FS1

The Fox-Barstool partnership is off to a shaky start from a viewership standpoint.

Week 1 of FS1’s new morning show Wake Up Barstool has put up some truly dreadful viewership figures. According to Manny, the founder of the TV Media Blog Substack that tracks sports viewership, not a single episode of Barstool’s new morning show eclipsed the 20,000 viewer threshold on FS1 during its first four runs last week. Wake Up Barstool averaged just 16,500 viewers per episode on FS1.

The Wake Up Barstool viewership was beyond bad in week 1.

Tue: 20K
Wed: 13K
Thu: 13K
Fri: 20K

All week, Herd and First Things First were all over 100,000 viewers later in the day.

— Manny | Weather, TV, Sports (@sportsontvguy) September 10, 2025

For comparison, FS1’s other daytime programming, The Herd and First Things First, both surpassed 100,000 viewers each day last week.

The lackluster numbers are to be expected, especially early in the show’s run. For one, Barstool’s audience is digitally native. Few Stoolies are tuning into linear television during working hours on weekdays; they’re consuming Barstool content on their phones. That dynamic can be seen in Wake Up Barstool‘s YouTube viewership, which has proven much more robust than the FS1 television numbers. Across those same four episodes last week, the show’s non-live YouTube viewership has averaged 56,750 views.

Let’s be clear, Fox did not enter this partnership to improve its viewership on FS1. If that happens, it’d be a nice sweetener. But Fox really entered into business with Barstool to increase its digital presence. In the first week of Wake Up Barstool, several clips went viral on social media. Dave Portnoy made headlines. It was everything Fox could want out of its new morning show.

It’s just not connecting with the older audiences that watch linear television during weekday mornings. And even if Fox has to trade a few thousand FS1 viewers each morning for more engagement on its digital feeds, that’s probably a trade they’d be willing to make.

Wake Up Barstool is still a very new show, too. There’s still a possibility it gains footing among a more traditional television audience. But success for the program won’t be defined by its ratings on FS1. It’ll be defined by whether or not it breaks through online in ways that Breakfast Ball and The Facility simply could not.