Hannity Flynn Special Wins Thursday 9 PM Ratings Despite Ratings Dip; CNN Takes Lead in Demo During Daytime

On Thursday, Fox News’ Hannity devoted the entire hour to revisiting the past three years of its coverage the Michael Flynn investigation, and while the show won its 9:00 p.m. time-slot, it also posted some of the lowest overall ratings in weeks. The clip show also appeared to have a hangover effect on its 10:00 p.m. successor, as The Ingraham Angle also experienced noticeably lower ratings.

Nevertheless, Fox News handily won the primetime ratings, with 3.57 million overall viewers and 591,000 in the advertiser-coveted 25 – 54 age demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research. That was compared to CNN’s 1.37 million and 339,000 in the demo, and MSNBC’s 2.25 million and 338,000, respectively. But the latter two hours of Fox’s nighttime lineup clearly sagged, as The Ingraham Angle performed below average with 3.12 million overall and 520,000 in the demo while Hannity garnered 565,000 in the demo and 3.55 million overall, one of its lowest total audience numbers in weeks. Those Hannity figures were also a significant fall-off from its 8:00 p.m. lead-in, Tucker Carlson Tonight, which was the top-rated show in cable news with 4.04 million total viewers and 689,000 in the demo.

Despite this, Hannity still overmatched its competition. MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show came in second at 9:00 p.m. with 2.93 million total and 429,000 A25 – 54 viewers. And yet another in series of CNN’s global coronavirus town halls trailed behind both with 1.27 million and 320,000 viewers in the demo. Likewise, CNN’s Chris Cuomo Tonight could not take advantage of The Ingraham Angle’s Thursday night ratings dip, as it only managed to attain 378,000 viewers in the demo. The latter number was good enough for second place, as Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell came in with 331,000. But the MSBNC show turned the tables on CNN at 10:00 p.m. in overall viewers, as O’Donnell outpaced Cuomo, 2.16 million to 1.56 million.

In daytime, CNN reclaimed the lead from Fox News in the ongoing ratings battle in the demo, 283,000 to 280,000. MSNBC was far behind at 169,000. In overall viewers, however, the daytime ratings race remains incredibly stable, with Fox News in first (1.83 million), MSNBC further behind (1.29 million), and CNN a close third (1.11 million).