Fox News Draws Huge Ratings for Trump Orlando Rally, Nabs 4.2 Million Viewers in Primetime

Fox News went all in Tuesday night for President Trump’s 2020 re-election “kickoff” rally and was rewarded with huge viewership during their primetime hours. In fact, the right-leaning network easily outdrew the other two cable news channels combined in total viewership while nearly doubling them up in the key 25-54 demographic.

According to Nielsen, Fox News averaged a torrid 4.235 million viewers overall and 800,000 in the key demo during the 8-11 PM primetime slot on Tuesday. In comparison, MSNBC — which completely ignored the rally — drew 2.008 million total viewers and 270,000 in the demo. CNN, which dumped out of the rally after the crowd chanted “CNN sucks” following Trump’s attacks on the media, nabbed only 213,000 demo viewers and a total audience of 868,000.

Taking the stage shortly after 8 PM ET, Trump’s rally took up most of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight airtime, drawing 4.517 million total viewers and 866,000 in the demographic during that hour. Carrying over into 9 PM’s Hannity, Trump’s rally — and host Sean Hannity’s subsequent post-game coverage — boosted that hour’s total viewership to 5.027 million to go with 973,000 in the 25-54 metric.

Outside of the live rally coverage, Fox News also boasted the third most-watched show of the day. Benefitting from the huge lead-in, 10 PM’s The Ingraham Angle placed third overall in both the demo (562,000) and total viewers (3.156 million).

MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, which airs at 9 PM opposite Hannity, was the top-rated non-Fox program of the day, placing fourth in total viewership (2.473 million) and sixth in the demographic (353,000).

The most-watched show on CNN was the 10 PM hour of CNN Tonight, which drew 926,000 viewers overall. Cuomo Prime Time led in the demo with 231,000.