MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Just Beat Fox News and Every Other Primetime Program On TV

For several weeks now Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC program has been picking up steam. Last Monday she rose into the ratings top ten in her time period. And that momentum continued for the rest of the week. As a result, she just snagged a victory over every primetime program for the week of March 6-10.

Rachel Maddow Donald Trump

The Hollywood Reporter noted the achievement saying that:

“Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s star player, is enjoying one hell of a ratings run right now.

“The cable news network’s 9 o’clock host outrated every other primetime show during the week of March 6. Not only did that make her show No. 1 among adults 25-54 in her time slot with an average 624,000 viewers, she even beat cable news’ perennial victor — Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly.”

A showing this strong is evidence of a titanic shift in the television audience. Bill O’Reilly has been the cable news king of the hill fairly consistently for years. He hasn’t seen any real competition since Keith Olbermann. In her time period, Maddow’s weekly average crushed her direct competition, Fox’s newest primetime host Tucker Carlson. And her victory included both total audience and the key advertising demographic of viewers 25-54. The smug superiority of Carlson was quickly embraced by Fox’s viewers. However, his bewildered and annoyed shtick seems to be wearing thin.

Maddow’s rise has occurred simultaneously with Donald Trump’s collapse. Trump’s approval ratings started in the cellar with the lowest numbers ever recorded for a new president. And they have just gone down from there. This week alone he sunk five points to a pitiful 39 percent.

Consequently, Fox News is pulling out all the stops to prop up their propaganda. Sean Hannity blasted Maddow on Monday for daring to report on Trump’s ties to Vladimir Putin and Russia. Ordinarily Hannity wouldn’t bother to speak her name aloud. But now he is featuring her in his rants. First he complained that she didn’t have “a shred of evidence” tying Trump to Putin. That’s true. She doesn’t have a shred, she has truck load. Then Hannity asked the most blitheringly ironic question ever: “Do these people have any intellectual honesty?” No comment on that is necessary.

As for Carlson, he just announced that he will be interviewing Trump on Wednesday. Given Trump’s toxic presence, that might not be a great programming move. Fox’s glassy-eyed loyalists will love it, but the broader TV audience will likely stay away. What could they possibly learn from television’s most sycophantic Trump fluffer spending an hour with his idol?

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

That’s a problem that Fox News is going to have to contend with for the foreseeable future. Their star attraction is viewed by most Americans as an ignorant bigot who is intent on taking away their healthcare. During the campaign Trump was still a novelty and many people watched just to see if he would burst a blood vessel in his neck or slap an immigrant child. But the public knows Trump now and they’ve lost interest in his juvenile antics. And the more he is paraded out on Fox News, the better it will be for Maddow and MSNBC. Maybe CNN should start paying attention.

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8 thoughts on “MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Just Beat Fox News and Every Other Primetime Program On TV

  1. If he actually fluffed Trump on the air, that might be worth watching. Otherwise, meh.

  2. And all we get from the TrumpBots is how Rachel MUST have violated Federal law to get Trump’s tax records. Spirits of flame and fire! Of course, all that happened was she obtained the records, by whatever means, presented it to the White House, the White House didn’t object, despite the thin-skinned Pathological Liar in Chief, and then the White House attempted an end-run.

    Which allows the TrumpBots to attempt to discredit her in any way they can. And they’ll continue to crow about how this will mark the end of Rachel’s career. Which isn’t going to happen (any more than our firm wish that something will mark the end of O’Lielly and Hannity’s career).

    Never mind, of course, that the only reason the tax records were allowed to be released was for what the TrumpBots do best: a diversionary tactic. And it won’t stop Caligula from whining about it tomorrow on Twitter.

    Kind of pathetic, really…

    • More than pathetic. This along with his selection of cabinet members and advisors is very frightening especially when you view this in the context that this uniquely unqualified blowhard whose attention span to facts is in the nano seconds can cause massive problems and unexpected consequences.

      Thisdcould be absolutely frightening!!

  3. The greatest problem we as Americans face is the coming to reality of the Powell doctrine publicized in the 1970’s describing the pathway for the ideological conservatives to transform our country into an oligarchy. The movement has demonstrated how far they have come when more than half of the Governors of our 50 states were Republicans in the 2010 election. This was followed in a massive and I believe coordinated effort to gerrymander for right wing control and in 2016, the election of the new pinnacle of that movement. Our chief trumpeter–Donald Trump.
    His selection of the most far right barracudas for his cabinet and his own performance on the campaign trail has given more impetus to move further to the ideologically impaired and destructive radical right .

  4. Maddow’s “story” about President Trump’s tax return was a crash-and-burn. $38 million in taxes. A 24% tax rate. President Obama’s tax rate – 19%. Bernie Sanders – 13.5%

    • Really?? That’s all you got out of it?? Wow, no wonder this azs clown got elected.

  5. Yes she is a little annoying to listen to, and tends to draw things out. But her and her staff do a great job of digging and she will admit right on her show when she is wrong and correct it. She digs into all info and if you just wait and listen, you will usually end up saying wow, wtf, wholly crap, it figures, scum bags, I didn’t know that, or something along those lines. It was hard to watch any cable news after the illegitimate election, all of them were way wrong about it all, I didn’t watch for about a month. Don Lemmon on CNN is one of the few that does a good job with guests. His show is a little more entertaining then Maddows, always a fight and or argument between Trump morons and normal people.

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