Fox News and MSNBC programming dominated the May 2017 cable news rankings.
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight was the most-watched program across cable news for the month of May, averaging nearly 2.7 million total viewers in the 8 p.m. hour. Despite the No. 1 ranking, that’s a -10 percent decline from the network’s 8 p.m. total viewer delivery in May 2016. Carlson’s program came in at No. 2 overall in the news demo, and out-performed the network’s May 2016 8 p.m. demo average by +7 percent.
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show was the No.1 cable news program of the month in the key A25-54 demographic, and the No. 2 program in total viewers. Maddow delivered +120 percent year-over-year growth in total viewers and +125 percent growth in the news demo from its May 2016 performance.
Cable news’s newest addition to the 9 p.m. hour, The Five, was the No. 3 program of the month in total viewers and No. 5 in the news demo. The Five was -5 percent in total viewers, but +9 percent in the news demo versus the network’s 9 p.m. average in May 2016.
Fox News’s Hannity (+14 percent), Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier (+16 percent) MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (+130 percent), Fox News’s The Story with Martha MacCallum (+13 percent), Fox News Specialists (-1 percent) MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes (+115 percent) and MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews (+104 percent) round out cable news’s 10 most-watched shows for May 2017.
Anderson Cooper 360 (No. 12) and Erin Burnett Outfront (No. 13) were CNN’s top two programs in total viewers, and posted +48 percent and +75 percent year-over-year improvement, respectively.
After Rachel Maddow and Tucker Carlson, MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (+140 percent), Fox News’s Hannity (+13 percent), Fox News’s The Five (+9 percent), CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 (+74 percent) MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes (+121 percent), CNN’s Erin Burnett Outfront (+101 percent), CNN Tonight with Don Lemon (+80 percent) and Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier (+31 percent) round out the top 10 for May among adults 25-54.
The cable news morning show race for May 2017:
- Total Viewers: Fox & Friends (1,639,000); Morning Joe (1,058,000); New Day (683,000)
- Adults 25-54: Fox & Friends (372,000); New Day (255,000); Morning Joe (254,000).