MSNBC Tops in January

Yesterday, FTVLive told you that cable news is seeing their ratings return back to earth after riding the Trump wave.

But, with Trump inciting riots and dissing Joe Biden’s inauguration like a spoiled 5-year-old, January was still a big month for cable news and especially MSNBC.

In fact, MSNBC’s weekday prime topped all of cable as well as both Fox News and CNN in January, drawing 3.4M total viewers (vs. FOX News’ 3.0M and CNN’s 3.1M).

While Fox went from first to worst, MSNBC delivered record ratings. “The Rachel Maddow Show” was the highest-rated regularly scheduled program in total viewers and scored the highest-rated month at 9pm in MSNBC history with 4.3M total viewers (vs. FOX News’ 3.2M and CNN’s 3.6M). “Maddow” easily outperformed FOX News, topping “Hannity” by a record 1.1M total viewers and increasing total viewership by +40% while FOX News was down by double digits (-20%) compared to Jan. 2020.