The channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch to appeal to a conservative audience, hiring former Republican media consultant and CNBC executive Roger Ailes as its founding CEO.[9][10] It launched on October 7, 1996, to 17 million cable subscribers.[3] Fox News grew during the late 1990s and 2000s to become the dominant subscription news network in the U.S.[12] As of September 2018[update], approximately 87,118,000 U.S. households (90.8% of television subscribers) received Fox News.[13] In 2019, Fox News was the top-rated cable network, averaging 2.5 million viewers.[14][15][16] Murdoch is the current executive chairman and Suzanne Scott is the CEO.[17][18]