Maddow Takes Top Spot in Monday Night Ratings, Don Lemon Beats All of Fox News in Key Demo
In the cable news battle for prime time ratings, everyone was a winner on Monday: Fox News won prime time overall, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow had the most-watched show of the night, and CNN’s Don Lemon beat all of Fox News in the key demographic of viewers age 25-54.
Fox had the most total viewers in prime time, with 2.81 million tuning in between 8 and 11 p.m. Fox came third in key demo viewers, however, with a total of 362,000 during prime time. CNN averaged the most viewers in the younger demographic – 480,000 – but took third place in overall viewers, with 1.89 million. MSNBC held the middle ground, with 2.58 million total viewers and 383,000 in the demo.
The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC kept the top spot for the night, pulling in the biggest numbers in both overall viewers – 3.33 million – and 521,000 in the demo. Tucker Carlson Tonight had the second-most viewers during prime time – 3.29 million – but 422,000 in the younger demo.
CNN Tonight, hosted by Don Lemon, had a whopping 493,000 demo viewers. That was enough to beat all of Fox News prime time, from Tucker Carlson, to Sean Hannity (363,000) and Laura Ingraham (299,000). Lemon, however, drew fewer total viewers – 1.9 million than those hosts.
In fact, although Fox had the most total viewers Monday night, CNN and MSNBC generally did better than Fox with younger viewers, with Maddow, CNN Tonight, Anderson Cooper 360 (476,000) and Cuomo Prime Time (471,000) each getting more demo viewers than Carlson.
Notably, in the 7 p.m. hour, Fox’s The Story with Martha MacCallum saw a big drop in viewers Monday, with just 203,000 viewers in the demo tuning in. Martha MacCallum was beaten in the demo by Joy Reid on MSNBC (280,000) and Erin Burnett on CNN (423,000). She also placed third in total viewers, drawing 1.58 million to Reid’s 1.94 million and Burnett’s 1.8 million.
For the fifth day in a row, the morning belonged to MSNBC, with Morning Joe viewers outnumbering the competition – 1.54 million overall, and 267,000 in the key demo. Fox & Friends had 1.12 million viewers, and 199,000 in the demo. CNN’s New Day had the fewest numbers overall, with just 768,000 total viewers, and 171,000 in the key demo.
CNN had its strongest showing, relative to the competition, during the daytime hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., averaging 1.49 million total viewers and 314,000 in the demo. MSNBC had the second-most viewers both overall during that time, with 1.41 million total and 197,000 in the key demo. Fox’s daytime viewership averaged 1.23 million total viewers, with 180,000 in the younger demographic.
