May has not been Rachel Maddow’s month.
“The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC has averaged 410,000 viewers in the advertiser-sought adults 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen — that is her lowest tally of the Donald Trump presidency.
Maddow averaged 412,000 demo viewers in January 2017, which was the month Trump took office. May 2019 was the first time she dipped below that previous-low mark among those ages 25 to 54.
To be fair to Maddow, her all-in average of 2.6 million total viewers per show this month was better than several other months she experienced during Trump’s tenure.
“The Rachel Maddow Show” was still the third highest-rated primetime series across cable news, ranking behind only Fox’s “Hannity” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” That bronze rating holds for both the key demo and in terms of total viewers — it also means she still beat “Cuomo Prime Time” on CNN, which suffered its lowest-rated month since launching last June.
Led by Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, May 2019 marked Fox News Channel’s 209th-straight monthly win in primetime viewers over its cable news competition.
Below is how primetime, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., worked out this month.
- Fox News Channel: 2,388,0000 total viewers (377,000 in 25-54)
- CNN: 761,000 total viewers (185,000 in 25-54)
- MSNBC: 1,654,000 total viewers (242,000 in 25-54)
Each of the cable news networks were down double digits on a percentage basis in the key demo versus their respective May 2018 Nielsen numbers.