Fox News Sweeps Top 5 Programs in Wednesday Ratings as Rivals Opt to Cover House Impeachment Proceeding

The House Judiciary impeachment debate began shortly after 7:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. CNN and MSNBC opted, at that time, to air the opening statement of committee chair Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). Fox News stuck with its regular 7 p.m. program, The Story with Martha MacCallum. The latter’s decision paid dividends.

Fox News made a clean sweep of the top five programs in the Wednesday ratings — thanks in part to their decision to stay with regular programming during the House proceeding. CNN took gavel-to-gavel coverage of the proceeding, while MSNBC went back-and-forth. According to data from Nielsen, Hannity led the way with 4.15 million viewers overall and 682,000 in the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 demographic. Tucker Carlson Tonight trailed just behind, drawing 4.06 million total and 665,000 in the demo. The Ingraham Angle (3.47 million total, 591,000 demo), The Five (3.44 million, 526,000) and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.96 million, 481,000) rounded out the top five.

The Rachel Maddow Show led the way for MSNBC — pulling down 2.79 million total viewers, and 441,000 in the key demo. CNN, which stayed with the hearing until it was adjourned at 10:34 p.m. ET, peaked in the 8 p.m. hour with 1.46 million overall viewers and 363 in the demo.

CNN eked out a second place demo finish in total day Thursday, topping MSNBC 217,000 to 194,000 in that metric. MSNBC, however, turned the tables in the overall — scoring 1.36 million to CNN’s 845,000. Fox News dominated bot categories — posting 2.54 million and 410,000 respectively.

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