Chris Cuomo, On Air While Battling Coronavirus, Draws Nearly 1 Million Viewers in Demo

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has been drawing big ratings as he continues to host his show while battling the coronavirus, with intense symptoms he laid out in harrowing detail.

Cuomo on Wednesday night described his battle with the virus that has rocked the world and brought the U.S. economy to a standstill. He described hallucinating conversations with his late father, feeling like he was being beaten in the chest “like a piñata,” and shivering so hard he chipped a tooth.

That episode of Cuomo Prime Time, which airs on CNN at 9 p.m., drew a whopping 938,000 in the advertiser coveted 25-54 demo. In total viewers, his show drew 2.89 million eyeballs. That’s almost triple what the top rated CNN show was drawing on average just a few months ago.

CNN has seen serious ratings success in other hours too. In the daytime hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), the network has been regularly placing first in the demo. On Wednesday CNN drew 606,000 in the demo for those hours, while Fox News placed second with 567,000 and MSNBC came third with 270,000. Fox News won overall, however, averaging 2.68 million in total viewers to CNN’s 1.86 million and MSNBC’s 1.7 million.

Despite Cuomo’s strong showing, Fox News still had the top rated shows on cable news. Special Report with Bret Baier won the day — thanks to President Donald Trump’s White House coronavirus press briefing, which began just before 6 p.m. — with 1.36 million in the demo and a whopping 6.08 million in total viewers.

In prime time, Tucker Carlson was the top dog, drawing 4.85 million in total viewers and 1.03 million in the demo. Sean Hannity came second, with 4.52 million in total viewers and Laura Ingraham came third with 4.09 million.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, the network’s usual prime time titan, lagged behind Fox News and CNN in the demo, drawing 553,000 viewers. In total viewers she bested Cuomo, however, with 3.26 million.