July marked Laura Ingraham’s eighth month as the top female host in cable news, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Ingraham’s first ratings win over Rachel Maddow, who hosts MSNBC’s 9 p.m. hour, came in June 2018 and the two primetime hosts switched off periodically from there, with Ingraham claiming a win in some months but Maddow generally staying dominant.
Since December 2019, Ingraham’s 10 p.m. “The Ingraham Angle” has beaten Maddow every month, giving her the title of top female host in both total average viewers and average viewers in the advertiser-coveted 25-to-54 age demographic.
In July, Ingraham’s total average viewers totaled about 3.4 million and Maddow’s totaled around 3.3 million. In the key age demo, Ingraham pulled in an average of 578,000 viewers while Maddow brought in 498,000.
Ingraham did see a dip from her June numbers while Maddow saw gains, but the disparity wasn’t enough to unseat the Fox News host’s position at the top for the month. In June, “The Ingraham Angle” brought in an average of 3.7 million viewers, of whom 720,000 were in the key demo. “The Rachel Maddow Show” got 3.1 million total average viewers and 483,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54.
Since the beginning of 2020, Ingraham’s averages have been 3.5 million in total viewers and 632,000 in demo viewers whereas Maddow’s have been 3 million in total and 499,000 in the demo.