Fox News Rides Trump’s El Paso Rally To Dominant Ratings Victory Monday Night

Fox News centered its primetime coverage Monday evening on President Donald Trump’s El Paso campaign rally, airing the event live while also featuring an interview with the president. While CNN and MSNBC stuck with regular programming, Fox pulled in huge numbers during the 9 and 10 PM hours the rally aired, delivering the conservative-leaning network an easy ratings victory.

According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged a robust 3.984 million total viewers and a sizzling 797,000 in the key advertising 25-54 demographic during the 8 PM to 11 PM primetime hours. MSNBC settled for a distant second on both the demo (443,000) and total viewership (2.503 million). CNN pulled in 1.210 million viewers overall and 343,000 in the demo.

Trump took the stage while Fox’s Hannity was on the air, pushing that program to a total audience of 4.378 million, leading all of cable news for the day. Hannity placed second in the key demo with 871,000, placing behind The Ingraham Angle (895,000), which aired the rest of Trump’s rally as well as the president’s interview with host Laura Ingraham. The hour placed second overall in total viewers (4.234 million).

Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hannity’s lead-in, took third place in both the demographic (624,000) and total viewership (3.339 million). MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, which was cable news’ most-watched program in January, finished fourth overall in total viewers (3.071 million) and the key demo (559,000).

Fox’s The Five was fifth in total audience on Monday, pulling in 2.717 million viewers. Meanwhile, Fox News @ Night was able to ride the network’s post-rally coverage to a fifth-place finish in the demo (445,000).

The top-rated hour on CNN was Cuomo Prime Time, which drew 1.330 million viewers overall and 364,000 in the demo.