TV Ratings: Hannity, March Madness Are The Big Winners

When there’s a blowout in the normally tight race for cable news supremacy between Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow, it’s best to check the political headlines to learn why.

Hannity crushed MSNBC’s Maddow last week, with the Fox News Channel personality averaging 3.78 million viewers, reports The Associated Press citing Nielsen data. Maddow had 2.46 million viewers last week. It was her least-watched week of the year, and it represented the biggest gap between the two since last October.

The big story last week was Attorney General William Barr’s summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, a positive development for supporters of President Donald Trump. Hannity’s a big fan of Trump, of course, and featured a long interview with him on Wednesday’s show.

Hannity’s audience last week was up 24% from his average for the first three months of the year, Nielsen said. Other Fox News prime-time personalities did the same: Tucker Carlson was up 18% and Laura Ingraham up 25%.

Maddow’s audience was down 21% from what has been typical for her this year. The full MSNBC and CNN prime-time lineups slumped last week, with both Anderson Cooper and Chris Cuomo down 36% from the year’s average, Nielsen said.

Other key ratings wins for Fox News included Tucker Carlson Tonight throttling its 8 p.m. timeslot competition. The Five won the 5 p.m. timeslot by a dominant margin.  Laura Ingraham‘s The Ingraham Angle finished No. 1 in the 10 p.m. hour across the board.

⏩ TBS was the week’s most popular cable network, courtesy of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, averaging 3.57 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.83 million, MSNBC had 1.49 million, HGTV had 1.23 million and History had 1.2 million.

⏩ As for broadcast TV, CBS easily won the week in prime-time, averaging 6.6 million viewers. NBC had 4.7 million viewers, ABC had 4.4 million, Fox had 2.5 million, Univision had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 770,000.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.1 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.7 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.4 million viewers.

⏩Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for March 25-31:

1. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 12.59 million.
2. “NCIS,” CBS, 12.19 million.
3. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney: Purdue vs. Virginia, TBS, 10.49 million.
4. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney: Virginia Tech vs. Duke, CBS, 10.07 million.
5. “FBI,” CBS, 9.13 million.
6. “The Voice,” NBC, 9.01 million.
7. “College Basketball Studio Show,” TBS, 8.83 million.
8. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 8.28 million.
9. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 8.16 million.
10. “Survivor,” CBS, 7.76 million.

11. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney: Texas Tech vs. Gonzaga, TBS, 7.72 million.
12. “This is Us,” NBC, 7.64 million.
13. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 7.5 million.
14. “NCAA Post-Game Show,” TBS, 7.41 million.
15. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 7.38 million.
16. “American Idol” (Sunday), ABC, 7.28 million.
17. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 7.19 million.
18. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 7.02 million.
19. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney: Florida St. vs. Gonzaga, CBS, 6.5 million.
20. “American Idol” (Monday), ABC, 6.45 million.

⏩ As for syndication, the onset of March Madness basketball caused massive upheaval and numerous preemptions of shows cleared on CBS affiliates in the session ending March 24. Making matters worse, some shows did not air due to coverage of the Mueller Report’s completion on March 22.