ABOVE: Rachel Maddow (L) interviews Mary Trump on her MSNBC show. (Screenshot from MSNBC’s YouTube)
NEW YORK (AP) | Not only can President Donald Trump’s niece Mary sell books, she can draw a crowd on television.
Her one-hour interview with Rachel Maddow July 16 reached 5.2 million people, the biggest audience ever for one of Maddow’s shows and largest ever for a regularly-scheduled show on MSNBC, the Nielsen company said.
That’s not bad for July, when television audiences are generally the smallest of the year.
Mary Trump’s book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” approached 1 million units sold on pre-orders alone. First-week sales figures are due later this week.
Mary Trump also drew a crowd to CNN July 17, where she was interviewed by Chris Cuomo during the 8 and 9 p.m. Eastern hours, though not to the level as Maddow’s audience. Cuomo’s first-hour audience of 2.19 million was up 28% from the year’s average, while the second hour’s 2.66 million was up 39%, Nielsen said.
CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 3.2 million viewers. NBC had 3 million, ABC had 2.8 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Fox had 1.3 million, ION Television reached 1.1 million and Telemundo had 820,000.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks with an average of 2.94 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC was second with 2.03 million, CNN had 1.59 million, HGTV had 1.29 million and TLC had 1.26 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news networks with an average of 8.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.2 million.
For the week of July 13-19, the top 20 shows in prime time, their networks and viewership:
1. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 7.63 million.
2. “The Rachel Maddow Show” (Thursday), MSNBC, 5.24 million.
3. “NCIS,” CBS, 5.04 million.
4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 4.96 million.
5. “FBI,” CBS, 4.42 million.
6. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 4.26 million.
7. “United We Fall,” ABC, 4.24 million.
8. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 4.08 million.
9. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 4.03 million.
10. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Monday), Fox News, 4 million.
11. “Hannity” (Monday), Fox News, 3.99 million.
12. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 3.97 million.
13. “Hannity” (Tuesday), Fox News, 3.843 million.
14. “Hannity” (Thursday), Fox News, 3.835 million.
15. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Tuesday), 3.81 million.
16. “World of Dance,” NBC, 3.76 million.
17. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 3.753 million.
18. “Titan Games,” NBC, 3.752 million.
19. “Hannity” (Wednesday), Fox News, 3.74 million.
20. “Magnum, P.I., CBS, 3.738 million.
