Prime Time Cable News Ratings 5/26 - 5/28: CNN Slightly Interrupts FOX News’ Dominance, MSNBC and CNN See Big Gains on Thursday

The Ratings Junkie

Here are the prime time ratings for cable news shows from Tuesday, May 26 through Thursday, May 28. Keep in mind we are not counting Monday in this week’s tally, as Memorial Day caused all shows to be marked as specials.

Show	Network	Day	A25-54	Total viewers	HHs	A18-49	A18-34
Tucker Carlson Tonight	FOX News	Thu	0.65	4.138	2.66	0.39	0.15
Hannity	FOX News	Thu	0.63	3.968	2.56	0.38	0.15
Tucker Carlson Tonight	FOX News	Tue	0.54	3.779	2.47	0.32	0.12
Tucker Carlson Tonight	FOX News	Wed	0.50	3.876	2.54	0.28	0.11
Hannity	FOX News	Wed	0.50	3.566	2.36	0.27	0.11
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon	CNN	Thu	0.47	1.772	1.16	0.31	0.18
Hannity	FOX News	Tue	0.46	3.626	2.40	0.27	0.10
The Ingraham Angle	FOX News	Thu	0.46	3.347	2.21	0.28	0.12
The Ingraham Angle	FOX News	Wed	0.44	3.005	1.98	0.22	0.08
Rachel Maddow Show	MSNBC	Thu	0.43	3.025	2.04	0.27	0.13
Cuomo Prime Time	CNN	Tue	0.42	1.834	1.24	0.25	0.11
The Ingraham Angle	FOX News	Tue	0.41	3.170	2.10	0.24	0.09
Anderson Cooper 360	CNN	Tue	0.38	1.623	1.14	0.23	0.07
Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell	MSNBC	Thu	0.36	2.401	1.68	0.24	0.11
Cuomo Prime Time	CNN	Wed	0.36	1.928	1.34	0.22	0.09
Cuomo Prime Time	CNN	Thu	0.35	1.602	1.08	0.23	0.10
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon	CNN	Wed	0.35	1.578	1.12	0.19	0.09
Rachel Maddow Show	MSNBC	Wed	0.34	2.983	2.06	0.23	0.07
Anderson Cooper 360	CNN	Wed	0.34	1.565	1.12	0.22	0.11
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon	CNN	Tue	0.33	1.442	1.01	0.20	0.10
Rachel Maddow Show	MSNBC	Tue	0.30	2.657	1.87	0.20	0.05
All In with Chris Hayes	MSNBC	Thu	0.30	1.961	1.33	0.17	0.12
Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell	MSNBC	Wed	0.25	2.178	1.53	0.18	0.07
Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell	MSNBC	Tue	0.23	2.171	1.50	0.16	0.06
All In with Chris Hayes	MSNBC	Wed	0.19	1.752	1.25	0.12	0.06
All In with Chris Hayes	MSNBC	Tue	0.18	1.671	1.20	0.18	0.05

While FOX News is still clearly the dominant network in the ratings, it did not match last week's accomplishment of beating everything on CNN and MSNBC. Thursday's edition of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon jumped to a 0.47 in the coveted A25-54 demo, beating every Ingraham Angle, and even one Hannity. This is a stark contrast to the airings earlier in the week, which were toward the bottom of the pack for CNN. Rachel Maddow and Chris Cuomo's shows also rated higher than Tuesday's episode of The Ingraham Angle.

MSNBC and FOX News also had a nice Thursday night, with all shows except The Ingraham Angle rising roughly a ratings tenth or more. Hannity came close to taking the top spot of the week away from Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Anderson Cooper 360 did not air on Thursday, so it is uncertain if it would have seen a ratings bump like CNN Tonight, or stayed mostly steady like Cuomo Prime Time.

While Friday ratings are not included in the above table due to oftentimes being marked as specials and being significantly lower-rated, it is notable that CNN saw a huge spike on Friday, May 27 for their coverage of the protests. CNN Tonight topped the entire night on both broadcast and cable, hitting a 1.21 in the 10pm hour in the key A25-54 demo, and a 0.88 in A18-49. The two hours of the Don Lemon-hosted show, combined with two hours of Chris Cuomo and one of Anderson Cooper, were the top 5 highest-rated hours on cable. With FOX News behind and MSNBC well behind, it seems CNN is the network most people like to turn to for this. Full Friday ratings are:

	Network	A25-54	Total viewers	HHs	A18-49	A18-34
CNN Tonight	CNN	1.21	3.660	2.37	0.88	0.40
Cuomo Prime Time	CNN	1.13	3.883	2.54	0.81	0.42
Anderson Cooper 360	CNN	0.80	3.035	2.06	0.59	0.27
Hannity	FOX News	0.68	4.342	2.83	0.41	0.25
The Ingraham Angle	FOX News	0.67	3.892	2.53	0.42	0.18
Tucker Carlson Tonight	FOX News	0.56	4.130	2.69	0.31	0.17
Rachel Maddow Show	MSNBC	0.38	2.730	1.90	0.26	0.12
Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell	MSNBC	0.34	2.140	1.49	0.23	0.11
All In with Chris Hayes	MSNBC	0.24	1.675	1.18	0.17	0.09