Breaking News on Trump’s Covid Test Leads to Surprising Late Night Ratings Win
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon pulled out a rare, late-night ratings win in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic, thanks to the network’s breaking news coverage of President Donald Trump’s imminent, ultimately positive Covid-19 test result. In both the 11:00 p.m. Thursday and Midnight Friday time-slot, Lemon edged out MSNBC’s extended The 11th Hour, which also extended its live coverage several hours to cover the news.
According to Nielsen Media Research, CNN won with 450,000 viewers in the demo at 11:00 p.m. (1.66 million overall), as cable news tracked top White House aide Hope Hicks’ positive test and Trump’s Twitter announcement that he and First Lady Melania Trump were self-quarantining as they waited for their own coronavirus verdict. That figure edged out the Fox’s 439,000 viewers in live coverage at 11:00 p.m. (1.99 million overall) as well as MSNBC’s 411,000 (2.36 million).
After midnight, Fox News reran its 8:00 p.m. broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight, while Lemon and 11th Hour’s host Brian Williams continued to helm special coverage about the White House’s Covid crisis. CNN again came in first with 378,000 A25 – 54 viewers, edging out MSNBC’s 368,000. But the latter won overall viewers with 1.79 million, beating out CNN’s 1.48 million.
On average, however, Fox News swept both total day and primetime audience in the demo and overall. From 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., Fox scored 405,000 A25–54 viewers, outpacing CNN’s 308,000 and MSNBC’s 295,000. Its 2.13 million total viewers similarly topped MSNBC’s 1.79 million and CNN’s 1.33 million.
In primetime, Fox News dominated thanks to Hannity‘s call-in interview with Trump, which reached an impressive 945,000 viewers in the demo and just over five million overall. As a result, Fox surpassed 800,000 A25 – 54 viewers in primetime, besting CNN’s 494,000 and MSNBC’s 449,000 in the demo. Overall, Fox won with 4.47 million total viewers, as MSNBC came in second place with 2.79 million and CNN trailed with 2.06 million.
