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.
- RELATED: Scoreboard: Tuesday, March 14
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 |