With More Than 4 Million Viewers, Rachel Maddow Had the No. 3 Show on TV at 9pm Tuesday

By A.J. Katz 

Tuesday’s edition of The Rachel Maddow Show was one of the most highly-anticipated, heavily-scrutinized, and now most-watched episode ever.

With 4.13 million viewers the revelation of Trump’s 2005 tax return was the No. 1 cable news program of the night. It was also the No. 3 show on all of TV in its 9 p.m. timeslot. Only the season finale of NBC’s This is Us (which also set a series record), and CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans delivered more total viewers.

With 1.43 million viewers, Maddow was also the No. 1 cable news show in the news demo. This was the highest-rated program ever for Maddow. Maddow’s head-to-head competition, Tucker Carlson, also scored a respectable 3 million viewers at 9 p.m. Anderson Cooper 360 averaged 1 million in the hour.

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The Maddow episode came without much promotion, at least on the part of MSNBC. The Maddow team sent a tweet at 7:36 p.m.–less than 90 minutes to airtime–which then spread like wildfire on Twitter. Maddow’s lead-in, Chris Hayes, also mentioned the scoop which added to the massive tune in. Viewership more than doubled  from 1.81 million at 8 p.m. to 4.13 million at 9 p.m.

Tuesday, March 14 (9 – 10 p.m. ET)

1 This Is Us NBC 12.816M
2 NCIS: New Orleans CBS 10.824M
3 The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC 4.130M
4 Fresh Off the Boat ABC 3.374M
5 Fixer Upper HGTV 3.236M
6 Tucker Carlson Tonight FNC 3.015M

 

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