Trump Interview Leads Hannity to Thursday Ratings Win as Fox Sweeps Primetime, Total Day

Despite hosting a news-making interview with President Donald Trump, Hannity fell just short of a ratings win on Thursday in the coveted 25–54 demographic, coming just 15,000 viewers shy of the nightly victor, Tucker Carlson Tonight. But Fox’s 9:00 p.m. hour did claim the top cable news spot in overall viewers, edging its 8:00 p.m. lead-in by 109,000 viewers.

According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News’ Hannity pulled in 860,000 A25 – 54 viewers on Thursday, as a still Covid-infected Trump called in to insist he was completely healthy, even as his voice was noticeably hoarse and gave way at two different moments, and pushed a bizarre lie that Virginia’s Democratic governor personally executed a baby. That audience mark was only bested by Tucker Carlson‘s 875,000 viewers in the demo. But the roles were reversed in total viewers, as Hannity scored first with 4.96 million viewers and Carlson was a runner-up with 4.85 million.

Those two performances, plus a third-place showing from The Ingraham Angle‘s 693,000 A25 – 54 viewers, fueled Fox’s primetime ratings win on Thursday in A25 – 54 and total viewers. Over the 8:00 – 11:00 p.m. hours, Fox News averaged 809,000 viewers in the demo (4.49 million overall), while CNN came next in the demo with 582,000 viewers (2.42 million) and MSNBC ranked third with an audience of 543,000 (though beat CNN in total viewers with 3.22 million).

In total day ratings, the race was much closer, but the results were the same, as Fox News swept total and demo ratings between 6:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. with 2.46 million and 461,000 viewers, respectively. CNN’s 404,000 A25 – 54 viewers were good enough for second place, and beat out MSNBC’s 332,000 viewers. But in overall viewers, the networks again switched places as MSNBC pulled in 2.10 million total viewers while CNN trailed with 1.65 million.