Fox News had its most-watched July ever, and Sean Hannity was the most-watched host on cable news, with his eponymous program averaging 4.1 million Total Viewers and 687,000 Adults 25-54.
Despite controversy swirling around his program, and a handful of days off-air in the middle of the month, Tucker Carlson Tonight was still the No. 1 cable news show in July among Adults 25-54, averaging 695,000 in the demo and 4 million Total Viewers.
That’s according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data for the month of July.
The Ingraham Angle was the No. 3 show on cable news, per usual, followed by MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show at No. 4, which made a much-needed ratings comeback.
The month of July for TRMS was highlighted by the July 16 broadcast, which averaged a record 5.23 million viewers. The broadcast featured Maddow’s interview with President Trump’s niece Mary Trump.
The Five, Special Report with Bret Baier, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, The Story with Martha MacCallum, Deadline: White House and The 11th Hour with Brian Williams were the 10 most-watched cable news shows for July.
Fox News @ Night had been the most-watched 11 p.m. cable news show for the first six months of 2020. Williams was finally able to break the streak in July.
That said, Fox News @ Night, hosted by Shannon Bream, remained No. 1 in the hour among Adults 25-54 (402,000).
Speaking of competitive cable news hours, at 4 p.m., MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace (Deadline:White House) was No. 1 in Total Viewers, averaging 2.1 million viewers. CNN’s Jake Tapper (The Lead) took first place in that hour among Adults 25-54, with 326,000,
Cuomo Prime Time was CNN’s most-watched show of the month, averaging 1.87 million viewers at 9 p.m. (No. 13 overall).
Here’s the July 2020 morning show comparison: Fox & Friends versus Morning Joe versus New Day.
| FNC | MSNBC | CNN | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 1,473,000 | 1,328,000 | 632,000 |
| • A25-54: | 258,000 | 205,000 | 151,000 |
Next, the full cable news program ranker, sorted by Total Viewers:
July 2020 Cable News Show Ranker: Total Viewers
Fox News was home to the top 3 cable news programs among Adults 25-54, the preferred demographic among advertisers of news, and six of the top 10.
As previously mentioned, Tucker Carlson was No. 1 on cable news in the demo, averaging a whopping 695,000 Adults 25-54 per first-run original broadcast. Hannity followed him (687,000), with The Ingraham Angle (578,000), The Rachel Maddow Show (498,000) and The Five (489,000) rounding out the top five.
Cuomo Prime Time, CNN’s top show, came in at No. 6 across cable news (480,000), followed by its lead-in Anderson Cooper 360. Fox News @ Night hosted by Shannon Bream finished No. 8, Special Report with Bret Baier No. 9 and CNN Tonight with Don Lemon No. 10 for the month of July among Adults 25-54.