| March 31, 2020 05:23 PM
| Updated Mar 31, 2020, 06:04 PM
Fox News had the top five most-watched cable news programs during the first quarter of 2020.
With the coronavirus pandemic increasingly taking up much of the media's focus, prime-time hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson had the top two shows, averaging more than 4 million viewers a night, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Five, which starts at 5 p.m. ET; Laura Ingraham's evening program, which airs at 10 p.m.; and news anchor Bret Baier's program, which airs at 6 p.m., rounded out the top five. Each program averaged more than 3 million viewers. These five shows also finished in the top five of the key 25-54 age demographic, which helps determine ad rates.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who in recent quarters competed for the top-rated show against Hannity and Carlson, slipped out of the top five to sixth place. Her show also dropped an additional spot in the 25-54 age demographic, behind Fox News's The Story with Martha MacCallum, which airs at 7 p.m. ET. Maddow averaged an audience of 3 million people per day. Her viewership has rebounded somewhat, despite the drop in the rankings, as the numbers have also risen for Hannity and Carlson.
Overall viewership appears to be up across the board as people tuned into the news while major events unfolded, including President Trump's impeachment saga, the Democratic presidential primary, and, most recently, the coronavirus outbreak, which has many more people at home adhering to social distancing guidelines to stem the spread of the illness.
As people were stuck in their homes and eyeballs were glued to televisions, a number of Fox News opinion programs faced accusations that they downplayed the severity of the virus. However, Carlson was one of the leading voices encouraging the president to do just the opposite: take the threat of the virus seriously.
Maddow's ratings were up this time last year as she dedicated a great deal of coverage to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, which ended in the spring. Last January, the MSNBC prime-time anchor averaged 3.3 million viewers a month.
Yet after the Mueller investigation ended, finding no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, her ratings dipped below 2.5 million viewers on average during the summer months. In the fourth quarter of 2019, during which heavy coverage was given to the House impeachment investigation that ended in December with two charges, Maddow's average viewership hovered around 2.5 million. Trump was acquitted of the two Ukraine-related articles of impeachment in February.
Lawrence O'Donnell, the MSNBC anchor whose 10 p.m. ET show comes on after Maddow's, finished second at the network with an average of 2.2 million viewers a night. That average audience size was good for eighth place in cable news rankings. He and Maddow were the only two non-Fox News programs to finish in the top 15.
CNN's top-watched program was The Lead with Jake Tapper, averaging 1.4 million viewers and coming in 22nd place.
FOX Business saw its highest-rated quarter ever in the total day and business day in ratings but still lost out to CNBC in both areas.