MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” won the critical advertiser-coveted 25- 54-year-old demographic for the month of August, leaving CNN in the dust and narrowly beating longtime ratings leader Fox News’ Sean Hannity in the 9 p.m. hour.
In August, Maddow averaged 557,000 nightly viewers, compared to Fox News’ 547,000 and CNN’s 406,000.
Maddow’s show was powered to victory by a late-breaking string of legal news surrounding Trump associates caught up in Robert Mueller’s investigation, which has put Maddow over the top of both Fox and CNN in the demo and total viewers from Tuesday to Friday of last week.
(A Fox News rep disputed the numbers saying that in fact Hannity had marked five consecutive months of being number one in both total viewers and the demo and Maddow’s only victory was only the result of 9pm specials.)
It’s not the first time Maddow has bested Fox News in the key news demographic during the 9 p.m. primetime hour. She previously won the demo against Hannity in January, March and April of this year.
Fox News remained the overall ratings winner in August, hitting its 200th consecutive month as the most watched cable news network in both primetime and total day in total viewers, according to Nielsen. And though Fox News lost the demo during Hannity’s timeslot, he won in overall viewers with Fox News’ older fans delivering the margin — though narrowly.
In August, Hannity netted 2.94 million viewers overall, with Maddow nipping at his heels with 2.88 million.
Alhough CNN came dead last against both Maddow and Hannity, Chris Cuomo’s new interview program “Cuomo Prime Time” has showed strong signs of reinvigorating the network’s fortunes in the hour.