Rachel Maddow’s return to her MSNBC show brought with her a ratings boost — drawing more than 2 million viewers on Monday after months of lackluster viewership in her absence.
The ratings showed a bump over recent weeks, when they’d fallen below 2 million since Maddow took leave in February to work on other projects, including a movie version of her “Bag Man” podcast and a book. The prior Monday, for instance, the show drew just 1.6 million viewers.
On Monday, Maddow announced she’ll soon be going to a weekly schedule. Starting May 2, “The Rachel Maddow Show” will be weekly on Monday nights.
The ratings disparity sheds light on the problem facing MSNBC, namely how will the network maintain strong ratings in her absence?
Even with the 2.1 million viewers she brought with her return to her left-leaning show, Maddow still trailed Fox News’s Sean Hannity, according to Nielsen figures. Hannity also airs in the 9 p.m. Eastern slot.
His show, “Hannity” reeled in just over 2.7 million total viewers. “CNN Tonight” came in third at the time slot with just 690,000 viewers.
Maddow came in as the 7th most-watched show on Monday, with Fox sweeping the top six spots.