Sean Hannity’s ratings dipped this month, and an NBC executive attributed the December slump to “bad news” for President Donald Trump, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The AP connected the downturn with a series of “ominous” headlines about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign team and Russia, which Hannity frequently criticizes on his show — but that’s not the whole story. Despite the surprising slump, the pundit’s self-titled show became the most-watched in cable for the second year in a row, and Fox is still the No. 1 channel.
Maddow overcomes Hannity in December
While Hannity is still going strong as the most-watched cable pundit this year, his ratings are down since the midterms. The Fox star averaged 2.76 million viewers from the election through Dec. 17, down 19 percent from the previous month.
He was also down 30 percent in the coveted 25-54 demographic, while MSNBC and CNN both went up in overall ratings and in that demographic.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow even “has been beating Hannity outright in December, a turnaround from October,” when Hannity trounced the liberal anchor by more than a million viewers on a nightly basis, according to the report.
The slump continued into last week, as MSNBC overtook Fox in overall viewers and in the 25-54 demographic for the first time in 18 years. MSNBC also led the pack in prime-time ratings for the fourth consecutive week with The Rachel Maddow Show, its flagship program, coming out on top.
Trump headlines hurting Hannity?
Hannity is a friend of Trump and one of his most prominent defenders in TV, often criticizing dishonesty of the media and the “Deep State” plot to take down the president on his self-titled show. Hannity also appeared at a midterm campaign rally with Trump, a move that angered Fox executives.
But his steady defense of the president might have hurt him in ratings this holiday season. The AP connected his ratings downturn to a recent glut of anti-Trump Mueller-related media reports, citing a professor and “longtime NBC executive” who attributed the dampening to a series of gloomy predictions related to the Mueller investigation.
Indeed, Trump attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced this month for campaign finance violations, and Trump’s involvement sparked speculation on the left about his possible indictment or impeachment.
The report also pointed out that Rachel Maddow’s show lost viewers after the Democrats’ demoralizing defeat in 2016 before attracting an anti-Trump viewership with obsessive speculation about Mueller and the Russia conspiracy on a nightly basis. Now, depressing news about Trump is discouraging Fox’s conservative viewers from tuning in, the AP reported.
“I think it’s a reflection of the mood of his audience,” said Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC executive and dean of Hofstra University’s communications school. “They can’t be happy with what is coming out of Washington every day… Even hard-core Trump fans are starting to put Hillary Clinton in their rear-view mirrors and say, ‘It’s been two years.”
Fox still king, but hold slips
But long-time former Fox executive Ken LaCorte was skeptical about reading too much into the slump. Hannity became the most-watched show in cable for the second year in a row in 2018, and its yearly ratings actually increased by 17 percent since last year, netting an average 3.3 million viewers.
“It’s probably more interesting to hear about the party you support taking over the House of Representatives because there are more interesting things to discuss,” LaCorte said.
Fox is still number one in cable, with MSNBC finishing third and CNN placing 11th. Whether the slump is just temporary or a sign of a bigger shift, Fox is still the king of cable news.
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