When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump last Tuesday, and while it was a blow to the president, cable news scored a big ratings win.
Fox News led the cable news channels in last Tuesday’s inquiry-announcement primetime coverage, averaging 3.5 million total viewers, according to Live + Same Day data from Nielsen. Of that, 620,000 people to tune in were adults in the 25-54 range, which is the most coveted demographic for cable news advertisers.
For that same 8 p.m.-11 p.m. window, MSNBC averaged 2.6 million total viewers and CNN posted 1.3 million. In the key demo of viewers from 25 to 54, MSNBC scored 516,000 viewers while CNN had 444,000 people tune in.
When the White House released a memo on the call between Trump and the Ukrainian president on Wednesday, CNN saw the highest primetime ratings growth vs. the prior four weeks, rising 74% in total viewers (1.7 million vs. 954,000) and 124% in the 25-54 range (523,000 vs. 233,000).
Fox News’ coverage for the evening averaged 3.6 million total viewers, with 569,000 in the demo, and MSNBC’s lineup put up 2.8 million viewers, 499,000 coming from the key 25-54 demo.
Fox News had the highest two-day average of total viewers for Tuesday and Wednesday, with a 110% advantage over CNN and a 32% advantage over MSNBC. In total, the two-day average of viewers for Fox News was 1.93 million with 337,000 in the coveted 25-54 demo.