Rachel Maddow's Ratings Keep Dropping as Ratings for Hannity, Carlson Rise

Published: 7/3/2019, 9:59:01 AM EDT

Rachel Maddow's Ratings Keep Dropping as Ratings for Hannity, Carlson Rise — Moderators Rachel Maddow, right, and Chuck Todd speak to audience members while hosting a Democratic presidential primary debate in Miami, Florida on June 26, 2019. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Ratings for Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show dropped for the sixth straight month as ratings for competitors on Fox News rose, continuing that trend.

“The Rachel Maddow Show” averaged 2.45 million viewers per episode, according to Nielsen Media Research figures obtained by the right-leaning Daily Caller website.

While Maddow's show continued its decline, it still ranked third in the cable news rankings.

"Hannity," featuring Sean Hannity, and "Tucker Carlson Tonight," featuring Tucker Carlson, ranked first and second. Both air on the conservative Fox News channel.

"Hannity" drew an average of 3.2 million viewers per night while Carlson's show drew an average of 2.8 million viewers. Both figures represented a slight increase from the previous month.

Tucker Carlson, host of 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' speaks onstage at IGNITION: Future of Media at Time Warner Center in New York City on Nov. 29, 2017. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images) — Tucker Carlson, host of 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' speaks onstage at IGNITION: Future of Media at Time Warner Center in New York City on Nov. 29, 2017. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Fox touted the rankings, with reporter Brian Flood writing that "Hannity crushes Maddow as Fox News tops MSNBC, CNN for 70th straight quarter."

In the story, Flood called the latter, which has struggled in ratings for years, "lowly." Out of all cable networks, CNN finished 15th.

Both MSNBC and CNN are openly against President Donald Trump and regularly spread conspiracy theories about him. The most-watched show on CNN for June was "Cuomo Prime Time" with Chris Cuomo, which finished 25th overall with an average of 910,000 viewers.

That was behind 14 different shows on Fox and 10 different shows on MSNBC.

Traffic on Sixth Avenue passes by advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, including Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, adorn the front of the News Corporation building in New York City on March 13, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) — Traffic on Sixth Avenue passes by advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, including Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, adorn the front of the News Corporation building in New York City on March 13, 2019. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Fox's "The Ingraham Angle" and "The Five" rounded out the top five, reported Forbes, citing the Nielsen figures. The former drew an average of 2.4 million viewers; the latter an average of 2.3 million viewers.

According to figures from Nielsen, Maddow's show averaged 3.3 million viewers in January, 3.1 million in February, and 2.9 million in March.

That month saw Maddow interrupt a fishing trip to react to the submission of Mueller’s report. As rival Hannity crowed about the findings on Fox, Maddow appeared to be holding back tears while on air.

The show saw an average of 2.63 million viewers in April and an average of 2.608 million viewers in May.

This image released by Showtime shows Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes in a scene from the limited series, "The Loudest Voice," which premiered on June 30, 2019. (JoJo Whilden/Showtime via AP) — This image released by Showtime shows Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes in a scene from the limited series, "The Loudest Voice," which premiered on June 30, 2019. JoJo Whilden/Showtime via AP

Showtime's Ailes Series Has Modest Start

Intensely loyal viewers routinely make Fox News Channel the most-watched cable network each week. So how many people want to watch a miniseries about Roger Ailes, the man who developed and ran the place for its first two decades?

The safest answer for Showtime's "The Loudest Voice in the Room" is it's early.

The Nielsen company said 299,000 watched the 10 p.m., June 30 debut of the miniseries starring Russell Crowe, or roughly one-tenth of the audience Sean Hannity pulls in each night. But for a premium cable network, that's only part of the story. When you add replays and streams, Sunday's audience swelled to 651,000, Nielsen said.

Often, as much as 80 percent of an audience for a Showtime series watches on a delayed basis, network spokeswoman Johanna Fuentes said.

"Since we're not ad-supported, that's just fine by us," Fuentes said via Twitter. "Show will be at a million (viewers) by week's end."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.