The Top Cable News Shows of May 2017

By A.J. Katz 

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.

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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).

 

May 2017 cable news ranker (Total Viewers)

May 2017 cable news ranker (Adults 25-54)

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