TV Ratings: 3M Watched Indictment Coverage On Fox News

Fox News Channel drew the largest single audience Thursday afternoon when the news first broke that former President Donald Trump had been indicted by a grand jury. Fox drew 3.057 million viewers in the 5 p.m. ET hour, dominating the cable news competition. MSNBC was second with 1.605 million viewers, and CNN finished third with 708,000 viewers.

As the story moved into the 6 p.m. ET hour, Fox News held its lead with 3.033 million viewers, while viewership grew at MSNBC (jumping to 2.297 million viewers) and CNN (nearly doubling from 5 p.m. to 1.224 million viewers).

Among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers, Fox News was first in the 5 p.m. hour with 362,000 viewers, followed by MSNBC (185,000 viewers) and CNN (138,000 viewers). At 6 p.m., Fox News led in the key demo with 357,000 viewers, followed by MSNBC (279,000 viewers) and CNN (261,000 viewers).

The historic indictment dominated cable news conversation in prime time Thursday, with Fox News drawing the largest audience—3.440 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (2.588 million viewers) and CNN (1.248 million viewers). In the key demo, Fox finished first with 484,000 viewers, followed by CNN (333,000 viewers) which narrowly beat MSNBC (331,000 viewers).

MSNBC brought Rachel Maddow—who usually hosts The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday nights only—in to lead the network’s breaking news coverage of the Trump indictment. “It’s wonderful to see you here on this very very important day,” said MSNBC’s Chris Hayes as he handed off to Maddow, who revealed that the breaking news came about so quickly she had done her own makeup.