TV Ratings Surge For CableTV News

The breaking Iran news sent viewers scrambling to their sets on Tuesday nights — leading to massive across the board numbers for the big three cable news networks.

According to Mediaite, Fox News had its biggest night since Feb. 5, 2019 — when President Donald Trump delivered a State of the Union address. Among the notable performers, Tucker Carlson Tonight, whose eponymous host has made headlines in recent days with his strong opposition to President Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran crisis, posted 5.7 million total viewers, and 1.39 million in the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 — the show’s biggest rating ever in the 8 p.m. hour, a time at which the program has aired in nearly three years.

Carlson finished second to Sean Hannity, who led the way with an enormous 5.74 overall, and 1.42 million in the key demo. How big is that audience? For comparison’s sake, in 2019, Hannity averaged 3.26 million viewers per night, and 528,000 in the demo. The Story, hosted by the newly re-signed Martha MacCallum posted outstanding Tuesday numbers, landing in third with 4.74 million total viewers and 1.22 million 25-54 during the 7 p.m. slot – shortly after the news broke.

But CNN and MSNBC had large audiences of their own. CNN’s Anderson Cooper: 360 broke through with 2.9 million total viewers, and an astounding 1.02 million in the key demo. The latter number was good enough to place AC:360 in the top five for the category on Tuesday.

Martha MacCallum

MSNBC was led by The Rachel Maddow Show which had 3.4 million total and 723,000 in the demo.

Martha MacCallum will continue to anchor her 7 p.m. program The Story. MacCallum will also continue to co-anchor all of the network’s election and special event political coverage alongside Special Report’s Bret Baier.

“Martha is a superb journalist which is exemplified nightly by her incredibly strong interviewing skills and first-rate reporting,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News president and executive editor Jay Wallace said in a joint statement. “We are delighted to have her continue anchoring and helping lead the network’s political team for another important election cycle and many years to come.”

“With the election year in full swing, I couldn’t be more thrilled to continue anchoring with our great team, at the network that has afforded me invaluable experiences over the past 15 years,” MacCallum added. “I’m grateful to Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace and Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch for their continued confidence in me.”