MSNBC has been looking for a big ratings night, and The Rachel Maddow Show delivered.
Last night’s edition of The Rachel Maddow Show featured the first cable news interview for President Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, whose book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, hit bookstores yesterday and set a Simon & Schuster first-day sales record of 950,000 copies.
During the interview with Maddow, Mary Trump accuses the president of many things, and claims that she has heard him use anti-Semitic slurs and the N-word.
Last night’s broadcast ended up being not only the most-watched program on television last night, but it was also TRMS’ highest-rated hour ever, and was the highest rated regularly scheduled broadcast ever on MSNBC.
An average of 5.23 million total viewers watched MSNBC’s 9 p.m. hour, a huge number by cable standards, and a number that shatters the previous program record of 4.5 million total viewers and 844,000 Adults 25-54 on Jan. 15, 2020.
The Jan. 15 broadcast of TRMS featured Maddow’s interview with former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who, along with a man named Igor Fruman, have been accused of helping Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, in his attempts to investigate former vp Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine. During the interview, Parnas told Maddow that the president was fully aware of what he and Fruman were doing in Ukraine.
President Trump addressed his niece’s book on Twitter briefly:
…. will all end up going to the government anyway. Next up is Mary Trump, a seldom seen niece who knows little about me, says untruthful things about my wonderful parents (who couldn’t stand her!) and me, and violated her NDA. She also broke the Law by giving out my ….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2020