The ratings for “The Rachel Maddow Show” have dropped for the fifth straight month.
Maddow, the most popular host on the openly anti-Trump network MSNBC, spent much of the last two years cheering on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election and claiming that it would prove that Trump colluded with Russia.
The show averaged 3.3 million viewers in January but has dropped every month since. In February, Maddow averaged 3.1 million; in March, she averaged 2.9 million.
That month saw Maddow interrupted a fishing trip to react to the submission of Mueller’s report. As rival Sean Hannity crowed about the findings on Fox, Maddow appeared to be holding back tears while on air.
Maddow’s show saw an average of 2.63 million viewers in April, and Nielsen Media Research said that she averaged 2.608 million viewers in May, indicating the number of viewers had dropped for the fifth straight month. That figure included 410,000 in the crucial 25-54 age demographic.
According to The Wrap, the figure in that demographic is Maddow’s lowest since Trump became president.
Despite the declining ratings, Maddow was the third-biggest primetime show on cable news, trailing Fox News’ “Hannity” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “Hannity” averaged 3.1 million viewers while Tucker Carlson averaged 2.7 million viewers.
The highest-rated show for CNN was “Cuomo Prime Time” with Chris Cuomo, which drew an audience of 938,000 total viewers, ranking it at 25th overall. Anderson Cooper was at 26th overall with 916,000 viewers.
CNN had just 185,000 viewers in the key age demographic, the worst showing since August 2015, reported Forbes.
Fox had the most primetime viewers for the 209th straight month. It also won the daytime, averaging 1.3 million viewers. MSNBC averaged 909,000 viewers; TNT, ESPN, and HGTV completed the top five.
Maddow Sees Ratings Drop to Yearly Low
The ratings release came after Maddow recently saw her ratings drop to a yearly-low.
For the week starting May 13, Maddow’s show averaged just 2.3 million viewers, with an average audience of 337,000 in the coveted 25-54 age demographic. The numbers represented the lowest amount of viewers and the lowest in the demographic this year, according to TV Newser, which published Nielsen ratings.
Ever since the submission of special counsel Mueller’s report in March, Maddow has been shedding viewers.
CNN, which regularly gets third in ratings behind MSNBC and Fox News, has also struggled since the submission of Mueller’s report. The network is also openly anti-Trump and regularly propagates conspiracy theories about him, including speculation, without evidence, about his mental health in addition to the Russia-Trump theories.
Compared to the equivalent week last year, MSNBC was down 13 percent while CNN was down 26 percent, according to TV Newser. In the coveted age demographic, MSNBC and CNN were both down by 42 percent.
Fox saw a boost from a town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, which drew is an average of 1.1 million viewers and was 22 percent up on the channel’s year-to-date average for the Sunday 7 p.m. time slot.
Fox was down slightly from last year but “continued to dominate its competition,” TV Newser noted. “Throughout the week, presentations of Hannity, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle, and The Five claimed 11 of the top 30 cable telecasts overall in total viewers.”
Sean Hannity, Maddow’s main rival, averaged 3.1 million viewers with just under 500,000 in the key age demographic.
For total viewers in the week, Fox came first, ESPN was second, MSNBC was third, TNT was fourth, Home and Garden TV was fifth, Investigation Discovery was sixth, Nickelodeon was seventh, USA Network was eighth, CNN was ninth, and the History Channel was 10th.
In terms of prime-time—from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.—ESPN got first, boosted by the NBA playoffs, Fox got second, TNT got third, MSNBC got fourth, and Home and Garden TV got fifth. CNN was 16th.
