Joe Biden Town Hall Helps CNN Beat MSNBC In Key Demos, Hannity Unchanged By Donald Trump Town Hall

Below is a chart featuring the ratings for prime time cable news shows on CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC. The main demographic of interest is A25-54. The first tiebreaker demo for chart placement is A18-49, the second tiebreaker demo is A18-34, and the third tiebreaker demo is total viewers, presented here in millions. 


Network

Day

A25-54

A18-49

A18-34

Total viewers

Tucker Carlson Tonight

FOX News

Monday

0.74

0.44

0.25

4.634

Tucker Carlson Tonight

FOX News

Tuesday

0.73

0.48

0.26

4.836

Tucker Carlson Tonight

FOX News

Wednesday

0.68

0.39

0.18

4.624

Tucker Carlson Tonight

FOX News

Thursday

0.67

0.38

0.20

4.723

Hannity

FOX News

Thursday

0.65

0.35

0.15

4.716

Hannity

FOX News

Tuesday

0.62

0.38

0.19

4.542

Hannity

FOX News

Monday

0.62

0.37

0.19

4.116

CNN Town Hall with Joe Biden

CNN

Thursday

0.61

0.41

0.21

3.445

Hannity

FOX News

Wednesday

0.60

0.32

0.14

4.464

The Ingraham  Angle

FOX News

Thursday

0.58

0.33

0.12

3.939

The Ingraham  Angle

FOX News

Tuesday

0.54

0.32

0.16

3.728

The Ingraham  Angle

FOX News

Wednesday

0.54

0.32

0.14

3.860

The Ingraham  Angle

FOX News

Monday

0.49

0.29

0.19

3.290

Cuomo Prime Time

CNN

Thursday

0.46

0.30

0.14

2.594

Rachel Maddow Show

MSNBC

Wednesday

0.46

0.25

0.07

3.566

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

Tuesday

0.42

0.27

0.15

2.352

Rachel Maddow Show

MSNBC

Tuesday

0.41

0.24

0.08

3.177

Rachel Maddow Show

MSNBC

Thursday

0.41

0.22

0.07

3.090

The Story with Martha MacCallum

FOX News

Tuesday

0.40

0.26

0.14

2.532

Rachel Maddow Show

MSNBC

Monday

0.39

0.21

0.08

3.210

Cuomo Prime Time

CNN

Wednesday

0.36

0.22

0.12

1.671

The Story with Martha MacCallum

FOX News

Wednesday

0.36

0.18

0.08

2.357

CNN Tonight (10pm)

CNN

Wednesday

0.35

0.22

0.11

1.482

Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

MSNBC

Wednesday

0.35

0.21

0.08

3.062

The Story with Martha MacCallum

FOX News

Monday

0.34

0.19

0.10

2.429

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

Wednesday

0.33

0.22

0.10

1.583

Cuomo Prime Time

CNN

Tuesday

0.33

0.21

0.09

1.707

The Story with Martha MacCallum

FOX News

Thursday

0.33

0.18

0.08

2.509

CNN Tonight (10pm)

CNN

Thursday

0.32

0.21

0.09

1.582

Erin Burnett OutFront

CNN

Wednesday

0.31

0.21

0.08

1.381

CNN Tonight (10pm)

CNN

Tuesday

0.31

0.20

0.07

1.423

Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

MSNBC

Thursday

0.29

0.15

0.06

2.627

Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

MSNBC

Tuesday

0.29

0.15

0.05

2.342

Erin Burnett OutFront

CNN

Thursday

0.27

0.16

0.07

1.464

All In with Chris Hayes

MSNBC

Tuesday

0.27

0.15

0.06

1.896

Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

MSNBC

Monday

0.27

0.13

0.05

2.440

The ReidOut

MSNBC

Wednesday

0.26

0.14

0.07

2.091

All In with Chris Hayes

MSNBC

Wednesday

0.25

0.13

0.04

2.093

CNN Tonight (10pm)

CNN

Monday

0.24

0.16

0.10

1.283

Erin Burnett OutFront

CNN

Tuesday

0.24

0.16

0.07

1.274

Erin Burnett OutFront

CNN

Monday

0.23

0.15

0.10

1.187

Cuomo Prime Time

CNN

Monday

0.22

0.14

0.09

1.405

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

Monday

0.21

0.14

0.10

1.263

All In with Chris Hayes

MSNBC

Thursday

0.14

1.653

The ReidOut

MSNBC

Thursday

0.12

1.907

All In with Chris Hayes

MSNBC

Monday

0.12

1.854

The ReidOut

MSNBC

Monday

0.12

1.705

The ReidOut

MSNBC

Tuesday

0.11

1.727

One of the most shocking ratings this week is the Tuesday edition of Hannity. Facing direct competition from President Trump’s Town Hall on ABC, Hannity either stayed steady or rose in all key demographics. While Trump’s Town Hall demolished Hannity in A25-54 (1.0 vs 0.6), and beat it comfortably in A18-49 (0.6 vs 0.4) and A18-34 (0.3 vs 0.2), Hannity received roughly half a million more viewers than Trump. Given Hannity’s loyal support to President Trump and FOX News’ prime time programs’ conservative lean in general, this is something that is unexpected. It is possible that some people watched both, with one on tape delay but watched the same night, but that is likely not enough to explain Hannity’s steadiness. It is also possible there is a divide between people who want to hear Trump speak, and people who want to hear a cable news host speak about Trump. Whatever the reason, this is certainly a remarkable set of ratings. 


Former Vice President and Democratic candidate for President, Joe Biden, also did a town hall this week. It was hosted by Anderson Cooper, and while its ratings did not stack up to those of President Trump’s town hall on Tuesday, it is important to note that CNN is a cable network with less nationwide reach than ABC. Biden’s town hall gave CNN ratings much higher than their normal Thursday night town halls, and spilled over into that night’s airing of Cuomo Prime Time. Thanks in part to this, CNN saw a much-needed win over MSNBC in all key demos as the Presidential election nears. 


Five airings on MSNBC—three of The ReidOut and two of All In with Chris Hayes—failed to make the top 50 shows on cable in the A18-49 demographic on their respective nights. As such, ratings for A25-54 and A18-34 were not reported for those airings, making it tough to get an accurate estimate of the network’s weekly averages in those two demographics. Although it is unknown what MSNBC’s exact averages are in the A25-54 and A18-34 demographics, it is safe to say they finished below CNN in those two demographics. The below table features weekly averages for FOX News, CNN, and two demographics on MSNBC. 


Network

A25-54

A18-49

A18-34

Total viewers

FOX News

0.56

0.32

0.16

3.831

CNN

0.33

0.21

0.10

1.694

MSNBC

0.16

2.397

What do you think of these ratings? Leave a comment below!

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