Hillary Clinton may have flunked out of the Electoral College, but she remains a big winner when it comes to popular votes. Last Thursday’s edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, which was devoted to a live one-on-one interview with the former secretary of State, was cable’s most-watched news broadcast of the week, as well as the No. 1 non-sports show on cable.
Per Nielsen, the Clinton-centric episode of Maddow notched 2.95 million viewers in its initial telecast, edging out last week’s No. 2 cable news telecast (the September 12 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight) by 10,000 viewers. While ESPN’s Monday Night Football and NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football easily outdrew Clinton-Maddow, and USA’s WWE franchise edged it out, their conversation drew more same-day viewers than big scripted cable fare such as The Have and Have Nots (2.6 million), Rick & Morty (2.5 million), and American Horror Story: Cult (2.4 million). To be sure, it’s not unprecedented for Maddow or her Fox News rivals to top the weekly cable charts these days (thanks, President Trump), and Maddow’s show has actually topped 3 million viewers a couple times this year. But given all the recent media hand-wringing over Clinton’s book (and promotional tour), her strong Nielsen performance suggests she still has plenty of fans.
