The Fox News debut of “The Ingraham Angle” yielded big returns Monday, with the first ratings numbers from Nielsen giving host Laura Ingraham a commanding lead over her rivals at CNN and MSNBC.
The new 10 p.m. ET show drew 3.27 million viewers overall, with 622,000 in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 year-old demographic.
In what could be a bit of troubling news however, last night’s data showed MSNBC coming in a close second among the key demo. “Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” took in 612,000 viewers there, and placed a more-distant second overall with roughly 2.6 million total viewers.
“CNN Tonight” had 1.34 million total viewers, with 511,000 between ages 25 and 54.
Though she’s been a frequent guest on the network, it’s Ingraham’s first time in the driver’s seat of her own show on Fox News Channel.
As is the host’s custom, Ingraham’s inaugural episode is already drawing some of the web’s ire over an interview with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
As the two discussed Civil War history, the former Marine general dropped a bit of revisionism that set the Internet ablaze.
“Robert E. Lee was an honorable man. He was a man that gave up his country to fight for his state, which 150 years ago was more important than country,” Kelly told Ingraham. “It was always loyalty to state first in those days. Now it’s different today.”
He offered further reflections on the causes of the Civil War that draw widespread criticism online.
“The lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War and men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had them make their stand,” he added.