Trump Crazyness is Good for Rachel Maddow as Her Ratings Soar

Rachel Maddow topped the competition for the second straight week in its 9 p.m. slot for MSNBC (NBC Photo).

NEW YORK - As Donald Trump continued to immerse himself in scandal over his administration's possible collusion with Russia during his election and his baseless accusations of wiretapping by the Obama administration, one of the few winners was cable news and "The Rachel Maddow Show," in particular.  For the second week in a row, MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” (M-F 9-10pm ET) was the number-one cable news show in the key 25-54 demo in the M-F 9-10 p.m. time period for the week of March 13, according to Nielsen.

“The Rachel Maddow Show” averaged 2.91 million total viewers and 756,000 A25-54 viewers last week (vs. CNN’s 1.2 million total viewers and 420,000 viewers A25-54, and FOX News’ 2.94 million total viewers and 604,000 viewers A25-54). This is the program’s best week ever in total viewers and the best week in A25-54 since October 27, 2008. Compared to the week of March 6, “The Rachel Maddow Show” was up +11% in total viewers and +21% in A25-54. Among all cable and broadcast networks, “The Rachel Maddow Show” ranked in the top 10 in the time period every day last week – finishing in the top 10 for 21 out of the previous 26 days.

Three additional MSNBC programs each topped CNN among the A25-54 demo: “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8pm, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” at 10pm, and “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” at 11pm. This was “The Last Word’s” best week ever in total viewers and the best week in A25-54 since November 5, 2012.

MSNBC also bested CNN among total viewers during full day (M-F 6am-2am), “Morning Joe” at 6am, “MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle” at 9am, “Hardball with Chris Matthews” at 7pm, “All In with Chris Hayes,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” and “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams.”

March 2017 to-date, MSNBC again continued its ratings climb in prime (M-F 8-11pm ET), ranking #2 among all cable networks in total viewers. MSNBC is the second fastest-growing cable network among all cable in weekday prime (behind MLB Network), up +72% in total viewers over the same period in March 2016 (vs. -45% for CNN and -12% for FOX News).