Hannity Tops Cable News Ratings on Thursday with Trump Call-in Interview; Fox News Sweeps Total Day, Primetime

Fox News’ Hannity scored the best ratings in cable news on Thursday, thanks to a call-in interview with President Donald Trump. That helped the network handily win primetime and take first in total day audience as well.

According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News topped its CNN and MSNBC rivals in the 6:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m. daypart in both total viewers and those in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic. For the total sales day, Fox News averaged 2.11 million viewers overall and 371,000 in the demo, besting CNN’s 1.16 million and 301,000 and MSNBC’s 1.78 million and 253,000, respectively.

At 4:00 p.m., the ongoing ratings battle stayed true to form, as MSNBC’s Deadline: White House continued its success, taking the time-slot with 2.20 million overall viewers. That outdistanced Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, which pulled in 1.69 million, and CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, which trailed with 1.36 million total viewers. Among A25 – 54 viewers, however, CNN took first during the hour with 287,000, edging out Fox’s 270,000 and MSNBC’s 250,000.

In primetime, Fox soared to four million in overall viewers on Thursday and 725,000 in the demo, more than double CNN’s total primetime figure of 1.61 million and well above MSNBC’s 2.90 million viewers. Among the key demo, Fox hit 725,000 viewers, far above CNN’s 458,000 and MSNBC’s 410,000. Fox’s big win was paced by its across-the-board sweep of all three hours of primetime, with its 9:00 p.m. flagship show topping all of cable news, powering to 4.47 million overall viewers and 835,000 in the demo thanks to its lengthy presidential interview. And Hannity‘s interview subject also noticed his interviewer’s big ratings win on Thursday, tweeting out his congratulations for the Fox News host’s victory on Friday night.

Congratulations to @seanhannity on a big night, as usual! https://t.co/vS6dQpk3L1

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2020