In a sign of Democratic enthusiasm for the midterm, both Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell won their timeslots. Rachel Maddow election night ratings were the #1 show on all of cable TV, and MSNBC was the number one network from 9 PM-3 AM ET.
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Here are the Neilson ratings for the PA-18 special election programming as provided to PoliticusUSA by MSNBC:
MSNBC was #1 in total viewers every hour from 9pm-3am, including “The Rachel Maddow Show†at 9pm; “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell†at 10pm, a special extended edition of “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams†from 11pm-1am, and breaking news coverage on “MSNBC Live with Steve Kornacki†from 1-3am.
“The Rachel Maddow Show” was the #1 show across all of cable in total viewers, beating all other cable programs. “Maddow†also ranked #8 in primetime for total viewers in all of television (cable and broadcast).
– MSNBC had four of the Top 10 programs across all cable, including: “Maddow†at #1; “The Last Word†at #3; “All In With Chris Hayes†at #8, and “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams†at #9. “Hardball with Chris Matthews†came in at #11.
Among cable news networks, “Maddow†at 9pm, “The 11th Hour†at 11pm-1am, and “MSNBC Live with Steve Kornacki†at 2am all won their hours in both total viewers and A25-54, beating FOX News and CNN.
Rachel Maddow election night ratings were dominant
Maddow finished nearly a half a million total viewers ahead of Sean Hannity on Fox News, and Lawrence O’Donnell finished 9,000 viewers behind Hannity and 250,000 viewers ahead of his direct Fox News competition The Ingraham File. By the way, the whole Laura Ingraham experiment isn’t working out well at all for Fox. Apparently, there is only room for one sycophantic pro-Trump show and Hannity has that market cornered.
If one believes that partisan enthusiasm can be reflected in cable news ratings, these numbers are good news for Democrats and another sign that Democrats are engaged and ready to vote in the midterms. Maddow and O’Donnell are powering MSNBC to highs that many thought would be impossible for them to reach. Maddow isn’t just winning a rating race. She is changing what a cable news program can be and she is demonstrating that cable news can be intelligent and informative instead of talking heads screaming at each other around a table.
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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
