On Wednesday, May 5, Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” captured a rare demo win for the day in cable news — an achievement usually earned by Sean Hannity’s lead-in “Tucker Carlson Tonight”.
Sean Hannity hosted a sit-down interview with Caitlyn Jenner, the once-Olympic gold medalist track and field star, ex-spouse of Kris Kardashian and parent to Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Caitlyn Jenner is a Republican candidate for Governor of California, with the hopes to dethroning incumbent Governor Gavin Newsom. During the hour, she expressed her approval of the former President being a “disrupter” in Washington, D.C. and disagreed with “anything [current President] Biden has done” since taking office.
Among the key adults 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research, “Hannity” scored 477,000 viewers. That figure edged past his Carlson lead-in (462,000) and topped his time slot completion, MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” (380,000). Also, those marks were the week’s respective bests for the 9 p.m. Fox News and MSNBC programs.
For total viewers, however, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (2.913 million) was tops on May 5 while the aforementioned “Hannity” (2.835 million) was runner-up. These ranking positions of the two programs in the ratings have become increasingly familiar in recent months, as Carlson’s stature has risen in conservative media in the post-Trump era. So much of Carlson’s ascendance has been apparent that it was even closely dissected by HBO’s Jon Oliver in the March 14th edition of his Sunday night news satire “Last Week Tonight.”
CNN’s media observer Brian Stelter indicated, in his daily Reliable Sources newsletter, that Carlson also topped Hannity in online mentions over the past year. According to research company IQ Media, from November 1, 2020, to April 28, 2021, Carlson was mentioned in the online press 39,481 times. Hannity was mentioned by comparison 29,877 times.
Here are the cable news averages for May 3-9, 2021 — the total viewer figures for Fox News and MSNBC were cable’s two best marks for the week in total day and prime time; CNN, despite its programs not among the week’s 100 most-watched cable news telecasts, managed to rank fourth on all of cable in each category:
Total Day (May 3-9 @ 6 a.m.-5:59 a.m.)
- Fox News Channel: 1.171 million viewers; 202,000 adults 25-54
- MSNBC: 0.850 million viewers
- CNN: 0.617 million viewers
Prime Time (May 3-8 @ 8-11 p.m.; May 9 @ 7-11 p.m.)
- Fox News Channel: 2.161 million viewers; 343,000 adults 25-54
- MSNBC: 1.502 million viewers
- CNN: 0.941 million viewers
Top 10 most-watched cable news programs (and the top CNN program with its associated rank) in total viewers:
1. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Mon. 5/3/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.081 million viewers
2. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 5/4/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.988 million viewers
3. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 5/5/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.913 million viewers
4. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Thu. 5/6/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.853 million viewers
5. Hannity (FOXNC, Wed. 5/5/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.835 million viewers
6. Hannity (FOXNC, Mon. 5/3/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.834 million viewers
7. Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, Thu. 5/6/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.756 million viewers
8. Hannity (FOXNC, Tue. 5/4/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.748 million viewers
9. The Five (FOXNC, Mon. 5/3/2021 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.738 million viewers
10. Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, Tue. 5/4/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.719 million viewers
102. Cuomo Prime Time (CNN, Wed. 5/5/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 1.221 million viewers
Top 10 cable news programs (and the top MSNBC and CNN programs with their respective associated ranks) among adults 25-54:
1. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 5/4/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.517 million adults 25-54
2. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Mon. 5/3/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.494 million adults 25-54
3. Hannity (FOXNC, Wed. 5/5/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.472 million adults 25-54
4. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 5/5/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.462 million adults 25-54
5. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Thu. 5/6/2021 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.452 million adults 25-54
6. Hannity (FOXNC, Mon. 5/3/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.448 million adults 25-54
7. Hannity (FOXNC, Thu. 5/6/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.446 million adults 25-54
8. Hannity (FOXNC, Tue. 5/4/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.431 million adults 25-54
9. The Five (FOXNC, Tue. 5/4/2021 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.426 million adults 25-54
10. The Five (FOXNC, Mon. 5/3/2021 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.423 million adults 25-54
12. Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, Wed. 5/5/2021 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.380 million adults 25-54
35. Erin Burnett Outfront (CNN, Wed. 5/5/2021 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.283 million adults 25-54
Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research
