Rachel Maddow may have taken flak for dangling her scoop in front of Twitter users for more than an hour, but the suspense appears to have paid major ratings dividends.
The Rachel Maddow Show was the No. 1 cable news program on Tuesday, according to Nielsen ratings, drawing 4.13 million total viewers. Last week, Maddow’s show drew just 2.5 million total viewers, according to Nielsen data provided by MSNBC.
Whoa: Maddow viewer #s are in, and they’re huge. pic.twitter.com/2aeraH9hjR
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) March 16, 2017
Maddow’s show eclipsed its competition in the 9 p.m. slot at CNN (“The Messy Truth With Van Jones”) and on Fox News (“Tucker Carlson Tonight”), according to MSNBC.
“This is the highest-rated program ever for ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ in both total viewer and (between the ages of 24 and 54) demos,” a spokesperson said. “It is also the network’s second-highest rated regularly scheduled show ever in total viewers.”
Benjamin Mullin is the managing editor of Poynter.org. He previously reported for Poynter as a staff writer, Google Journalism Fellow and Naughton Fellow, covering journalism innovation, business practices and ethics. He’s also reported for USA TODAY College and The Sacramento Bee, and he was editor in chief of The Orion, Chico State’s student-run newspaper. An Air Force brat who grew up around Northern California, he’s still adjusting to the Florida sunshine.
