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 |
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