Maddow Most-Watched Cable Program Last Week, MSNBC Tops Weekday Primetime

With last week chock full of huge political news, MSNBC was able to overtake Fox News in weekday primetime viewing, thanks largely to the impressive performance by its flagship program The Rachel Maddow Show.

According to Nielsen, Maddow was the most-watched program in all of cable when it came to total viewership, averaging 3.32 million viewers. The 9 PM program also led all of cable news in the key 25-54 demographic, pulling in 677,000.

For the first time since August 2017, MSNBC led all of cable in weekday primetime (8 PM – 11 PM) total viewership, beating out Fox News (second overall) and CNN (fourth). MSNBC placed fourth overall in basic cable in the demo while Fox came in fifth and CNN finished in sixth place.

MSNBC averaged 2.7 million total viewers and 523,000 in the key demo during the weekday prime hours. Fox News followed with 2.6 million viewers overall and 498,000 in the demographic. CNN attracted 480,000 demo viewers and a total audience of 1.4 million.

It wasn’t just Maddow that had a huge week for MSNBC. The network’s 11 PM program, The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, had its best week ever, leading its cable news timeslot in both total viewership and the key 25-54 demo while averaging 2.07 million viewers and 384,000 in the demographic.

Morning staple Morning Joe, airing from 6 AM to 9 AM on weekdays, had its most-watched week in the program’s history, averaging 1.274 million total viewers.

MSNBC also enjoyed its best week in dayside (9 AM – 5 PM) in fifteen years, averaging 1.25 million total viewers.