A huge audience tuned in for MSNBC political talk show host Rachel Maddow’s interview with Lev Parnas, the former Rudy Giuliani associate. Here’s NBC’s press release in full:
NEW YORK (January 16, 2020) – MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” scored record total viewership Wednesday night following Rachel Maddow’s exclusive interview with Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, with 4.5M total viewers and 844,000 viewers A25-54 tuning into “Maddow” on January 15, according to Nielsen. Parnas’ interview dominated the news cycle after he revealed explosive allegations against members of the Trump administration, including that President Trump knew “exactly” what Giuliani was doing in Ukraine. Parnas also claimed that Vice President Mike Pence did not attend the May 2019 inauguration of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky because Ukraine had not announced an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.
Last night’s episode of “Maddow” was the program’s highest-rated show ever in total viewers, kicking off 2020 with a huge ratings win for MSNBC.
In the 9pm hour, “Maddow” ranked #1 across all of cable, topping #2 FOX News’ “Hannity” by over half a million total viewers (3.7M). “Maddow” more than tripled CNN in total viewers and topped CNN by more than 500,000 in A25-54.
Following “Maddow” at 9pm, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” at 10pm and “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” at 11pm were both #1 in total viewers, more than doubling CNN’s total viewership for those hours.
Fox News is the highest rated cable news network and one of the most watched cable networks in general. The audience it attracted means a lot of people who don’t normally watch MSNBC tuned in. This will likely not change the (foregone) decision of the Senate on Trump’s impeachment (don’t be your house, wife kids and dog on them convicting him, no matter what else comes out). But it does mean a larger segment of the public viewed something they never could have viewed on Fox News. Which could influence (even a tad) public opinion on the trial.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.