This year’s White House correspondents’ dinner didn’t perform well in the ratings department, despite the controversy that came with it. Fox News dominated Saturday night by not broadcasting the event and opting instead for coverage of President Trump’s rally in Michigan as well as regular programming.
According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News delivered 2.16 million viewers between 8 and 11 p.m.
CNN finished second with 1.132 million viewers, and MSNBC was third with 877,000.
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Compared to 2017’s coverage of the dinner, Fox was up 2 percent in total viewers while CNN was down 11 percent. Notably, MSNBC’s total viewers rose by 38 percent.
Breaking down the numbers by hour starting with 8 p.m., Fox’s coverage of the president’s rally in Washington, Mich., that ran until 8:40 p.m. captured 2.414 million viewers. CNN’s coverage of the White House correspondents’ dinner in the same hour delivered 1.003 million viewers while MSNBC delivered 619,000.
At 9 p.m., Fox’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine” registered 2.217 million viewers. CNN again was second with 1.045 million and MSNBC was third with 972,000 viewers.
At 10 p.m., Fox’s “Greg Gutfeld Show” captured 2.124 million viewers. CNN and MSNBC had 1.347 million and 1.040 million, respectively.
In the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers covet most, Fox averaged 389,000 viewers between 8 and 11 p.m. CNN took second with 277,000 in the category while MSNBC was third with 147,000.
The White House correspondents’ dinner featured comedian Michelle Wolf, who sparked major controversy with a monologue that dominated the news cycle for several days.
Wolf, 32, is a contributor and writer for Comedy Central with a Netflix series set to debut later this month.
In her performance on Saturday, she slammed President Trump and the media while taking a number of personal shots at White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was seated on stage.
Wolf referred to Sanders as “the Uncle Tom” for white women, while also calling her a liar.
The performance was met by criticism from conservatives as well as a few prominent members of the media from the New York Times, NBC, CNN and Fox News, among other outlets.
Several comedians and talk-show hosts have jumped to Wolf’s defense, including late-night hosts Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers, along with comedians Dave Chappelle, Billy Eichner and Jane Lynch.