Fox News Scores Massive 8 Million Viewers For Trump Speech, Beating All Cable and Broadcast Networks

Fox News posted a massive rating for Tuesday night’s Presidential address. Just how big were the numbers? The leading cabler topped not only their regular rivals CNN and MSNBC, they beat out each of the broadcast networks as well.

According to Nielsen data, Fox News drew 8,044,000 overall viewers for President Donald Trump’s 9 p.m. speech from the Oval Office. That total dwarfed CNN and MSNBC — which, combined, failed to top the Fox News total. MSNBC came in second among the big three cable networks with 4,243,000 viewers. And CNN finished third with 3,571,000.

Fox News edged out CBS for the top spot overall. CBS does not reveal its ratings data. But according to an industry source, 8,043,000 watched the speech on the Tiffany network. NBC was second of the broadcast networks with 7,030,000 total, followed by ABC (4,432,000) and FOX (2,562,000).

Fox News was also best among the cable networks in the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 demographic. According to Nielsen, 1,870,000 viewers in the key demo tuned into Fox News. Second place went to CNN with 1,388,000. And MSNBC placed third in the demo with 811,000.

And Trump’s speech had a carryover effect for Fox News. Wednesday night’s post-speech edition of Hannity posted its highest rating since host Sean Hannity returned to the 9 p.m. timeslot. The show brought in 7.1 million viewers overall, and 1.6 million in the key demo.

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