Alex Wagner’s primetime debut on MSNBC scored 2 million total viewers on Tuesday night, which blew CNN’s 9 p.m. hour out of the water but wasn’t enough to surpass Sean Hannity on Fox News.
The show — which featured guests Mark Leibovich, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) and Joyce Vance — managed about 183,000 viewers in the key cable news 25-54 demographic. That’s compared to “CNN Tonight,” which drew a total audience of about 866,000 and 176,000 in the key demo, according to Nielsen.
It should come as no surprise that Fox News Channel continues to dominate during primetime. In the 9 p.m. slot, “Hannity” scored about 3.1 million total viewers. Of those, 404,000 were in the demo.
“Hannity” beat MSNBC and CNN combined in both total viewers and demo viewers.
In addition to her featured guests, Wagner also provided updates on the Wyoming primary, which saw Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) lose her bid for reelection. Steve Kornacki provided analysis.
Rachel Maddow shifted her show on MSNBC, which was slotted at 9, to one night a week beginning in May. “The Rachel Maddow Show” now airs only on Mondays. Last month, the show averaged about 2.4 million viewers. It was the only non-Fox News show to break into the top five cable news shows in terms of total viewers.
In the key demo, “The Rachel Maddow Show” was the only non-FNC show to crack the Top 16 cable news shows at No. 8 with 230,000 average demo viewers.
Compare that to “Hannity,” which averaged about 2.5 million total viewers and about 343,000 in the demo. “The Five” remains the most popular cable show overall with 3.2 million average viewers in July.
