Chris Cuomo Tops All of Cable News in Friday Ratings Demo with Mary Trump Interview; CNN Sweeps Total Day and Prime in Demo
Cuomo Prime Time soared to a rare, best-in-cable-news victory on Friday in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic, thanks to an in-depth interview with Mary Trump about her scathing, tell-all book on her uncle, President Donald Trump. That performance also pushed CNN to a rare weekday sweep of both total day and primetime ratings in the demo.
Chris Cuomo’s nearly hour-long Trump interview pulled in 539,000 A25 – 54 viewers in the 9:00 p.m. hour on Friday. That topped all other shows in cable news on Friday, although Fox News’ regular primetime hosts at 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. were on vacation and attracted 433,000 and 454,000 viewers, respectively. The 8:00 p.m. hour of Cuomo Prime Time came in second and beat all of Fox as well with 484,000 viewers in the demo, as the Mary Trump interview began late in the first of his two hours of broadcast that night.
Buoyed by the strong ratings from the Trump interview, CNN won primetime outright with 487,000 average viewers in the demo, compared to Fox News’ 438,000 and MSNBC’s 298,000. In overall viewers, CNN also scored above-average ratings for the night, with 2.19 million, but that was still only good enough for third place behind MSNBC’s 2.27 million and Fox News’ 2.89 million total viewers. On its own, Cuomo Prime Time far outpaced its usual audience, with 2.66 million total viewers in the 9:00 p.m. hour. But Tucker Carlson Tonight (3.01 million), Hannity (2.96 million), and The Ingraham Angle (2.68 million), all surpassed Cuomo, as did MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (2.72 million).
CNN triumphed in the demo in total day ratings as well, thanks to seven straight hours of time-slots ratings wins from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. That helped the network average 312,000 A25 – 54 viewers between 6:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., besting Fox News’ 293,000 and MSNBC’s 203,000. But in overall audience, the same story from primetime held in total day, as CNN trailed behind, with 1.24 million, MSNBC was runner-up, with 1.44 million, and Fox News took first, with 1.88 million.
