Rachel Maddow’s audience has dipped on her two days back on the air since Attorney General William Barr reported that special counsel Robert Mueller had found no collusion between Trump and Russia’s efforts. Her MSNBC audience of 2.5 million on Monday was 19 percent below her average this year, and it went down further to 2.3 million on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press citing Nielsen data.
Meanwhile, her head-to-head competitor on Fox News Channel, Sean Hannity, saw his audience soar on Monday to 4 million viewers, a 32 percent increase from his average. It slipped to 3.57 million on Tuesday. One of Trump’s most prominent media fans, Hannity was to interview the president on Wednesday’s show.
Fox’s Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham also saw their audiences top their averages both days, while other prime-time hosts on MSNBC and CNN saw their audiences plunge.
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| Tuesday CableTV Ratings TV Newser graphic |
The phenomenon isn’t unusual; political camps are more interested in watching news when it reflects well on their favorites, and vice versa. Maddow’s ratings dropped sharply in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, as many fans of Hillary Clinton couldn’t bring themselves to watch the news after Trump’s victory, but eventually rebounded. Similarly, Hannity saw some ratings weakness late last year as bad news piled up for Trump.
Maddow has been the most visible television personality taking on Trump during Mueller’s probe, her reports methodical and detailed.
Maddow devoted virtually all of Monday’s show to what she’s calling the “Barr Report,” listing a series of questions she wanted to pose. About half of Tuesday’s show was on the investigation.
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