Political news rules basic cable ratings with Fox News and MSNBC beating out CNN

Fox News and MSNBC continue to enjoy soaring ratings as interest in the Trump administration remains high, according to Nielsen Research.

Fox was the highest-rated channel in total viewers in all of basic cable last week during primetime hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET, with MSNBC finishing second ahead of HGTV, USA Network and Discovery, which rounded out the top five.

One of President Trump’s favorite punching bags, CNN, came in No. 13 in total viewers behind Investigation Discovery and Nick at Nite.

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The most-watched program of last week was Monday’s episode of Fox’s “Hannity” with three million viewers.

MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” was the most watched in the key 25 to 54 demographic that advertisers covet most with 651,000 viewers.

Overall, MSNBC has enjoyed the most growth when comparing year-over-year numbers, with viewership up 59 percent in primetime when compared to the same week last year.

The daily drama of the Trump era continues to be ratings gold for all three of the major cable news networks, with combined viewing of Fox News, MSNBC and CNN up 33 percent through the first week of June compared with the same time in 2016, according to data from Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser.