Fox News was home to four of the top five shows on cable news for May 2019, with Sean Hannity leading the charge for the fourth consecutive month.
Hannity averaged 3.13 million total viewers with 506,000 A25-54 viewers for the month of May. Fox News’ signature show was a tiny bit up from April in total viewers, but -4% in total viewers and -22% among adults 25-54 vs. the program’s May 2018 delivery. As you’ll see with the remaining cable news top 10, Hannity was far from the only cable news host who experienced significant losses from 2018 among younger news audiences.
Tucker Carlson leapfrogged Rachel Maddow into the No. 2 spot, both in total viewers and among adults 25-54. He was one of the few cable news programs to actually post year-over-year improvement in total audience (+6%), however, he, too, was down year-over-year in the demo (-9%).
The aforementioned Maddow finished No. 3 across the board. Her MSNBC program was -1% in total viewers, but also -23% among adults 25-54 vs. May 2018.
Laura Ingraham‘s program The Ingraham Angle finished No. 4, but was -7% in total viewers and -26% in adults 25-54 vs. May 2018.
Fox News’ The Five appropriately rounded out the top five in the relevant categories. The 5 p.m. show delivered the largest year-over-year total audience growth of any top 10 cable news program (+8%). However, the broadcast was -8% in demo viewers.
Who else finished in the top 10? Among total viewers, MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (No. 6), Special Report with Bret Baier (No. 7), The Story with Martha MacCallum (No. 8), All in With Chris Hayes (No. 9) and Fox News’ America’s Newsroom (No. 10). Among adults 25-54, after The Five, it was Special Report (No. 6), The Story (No. 7), The Last Word (No. 8), Fox News @ Night With Shannon Bream (No. 9) and Fox & Friends (No. 10).
Cuomo Prime Time hosted by Chris Cuomo was CNN’s top show of the month, averaging 938,000 total viewers (No.25 across cable news), and 228,000 A25-54 demo viewers (No. 14 across cable news).
Total Viewers / A25-54
- Fox & Friends : 1,513,000 / 270,000
- Morning Joe: 1,053,000/ 171,000
- New Day: 485,000 / 136,000
Here’s the May cable news ranker, sort by average total audience:
May 2019 Cable News Show Ranker (Total Viewers)
Here’s another ranker, this one sorted by adults 25-54: