Rachel Maddow Dominates Fox News With Younger Viewers In January

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow had a dominant month in January 2018 as her program continues to gain momentum with younger viewers and crush Fox News.

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Here are the Neilson ratings numbers as provided to PoliticusUSA by MSNBC:

MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” dominated cable news in the key A25-54 demographic for the 1st month of 2018, finishing as the #1 show in all of cable news in addition to the 9 pm time period in January, according to Nielsen. “The Rachel Maddow Show” averaged 678,000 viewers A25-54 (vs. FOX News’ 660,000 and CNN’s 383,000) and 3,033,000 total viewers (vs. CNN’s 1,081,000) – MSNBC’s biggest total-viewer delivery in the 9pm hour ever. January 2018 marked the 3rd month in a row that “Maddow” won A25-54 across all of cable news.

In weekday prime (M-F 8-11pm) MSNBC beat CNN in A25-54 for the 4th straight month and in total viewers for the 14th straight month. Among all cable networks, MSNBC prime ranked 3rd in total viewers (after ESPN and FOX News – ahead of CNN, which ranked #11). MSNBC averaged 2.4 million viewers, more than doubling CNN’s audience of 1.07 million – the biggest win ever over CNN for that daypart. MSNBC was also the only cable news network to post growth in A25-54 (+65% vs. FOX News’ -16% and CNN’s -7%) and in total viewers (+65% vs. FOX News’ -15% and CNN’s -14%) compared to January 2017.

MSNBC is growing across the board, although Chris Hayes remains the weak link at 8 PM, as Hayes continues to struggle against the weaker Fox News competition of Tucker Carlson. Tucker is no Bill O’Reilly, but All In has still not been able to get over the hump.

The primetime growth is all about Rachel Maddow, and the younger viewers that flock to her show on a continuing basis. If you believe that cable news ratings are a sign of political awareness and engagement, Republicans could be in for a world of trouble on Election Day 2018, but younger people are more interested in Maddow’s show then they have been for previous midterm elections.

The long-term problem for Fox News is that it has the oldest audience on television, and while that audience is to the death loyal, there is no younger generation behind these older viewers that will keep Fox afloat in the future.

Maddow is building a long-term audience that will grow and stay with her show, as she remains the best positioned primetime host to dominate cable news in the years to come.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association