Rachel Maddow's Interview With Liz Cheney Leads Cable News ...

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had the highest-rated show in all of cable news Monday night

It was one of the most unusual interviews in Rachel Maddow’s long tenure at MSNBC: former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who joined Maddow on set Monday night. As Maddow told viewers, “I disagree with Liz Cheney about everything. My whole adult life on everything in politics, I would not just say that Liz Cheney and I were on different proverbial teams, I would say we are from different proverbial planets. And they are planets that are mostly at war with each other.”

The Cheney interview drew a big audience: 3.15 million viewers, which made The Rachel Maddow Show the most-watched show in all of cable news Monday night, well ahead of Fox News Channel’s Hannity, which had a total audience of 1.936 million viewers, and CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, which drew a total audience of just 375,000 viewers.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 23: U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Vice Chair of the House Select Committee to ... [+] Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, delivers remarks during the fifth hearing on the January 6th investigation in the Cannon House Office Building on June 23, 2022 in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence for almost a year related to the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, is presenting its findings in a series of televised hearings. On January 6, 2021, supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building during an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for President Joe Biden. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Maddow also won among viewers 25-54, the key demographic most valued by advertisers, drawing a total audience of 249,000 viewers, ahead of FNC’s Hannity (221,000 viewers) and CNN’s The Source (70,000 viewers). The Rachel Maddow Show pushed MSNBC to an overall win in prime time, with 2.293 million viewers, ahead of Fox News (1.996 million viewers) and CNN (402,000 viewers). Fox News won in prime in the key demo, with a total audience of 230,000 viewers to MSNBC’s 179,000 viewers and CNN’s 79,000 viewers.

Cheney, who has been fiercely critical of former President Donald Trump, made the trip to MSNBC to talk about her new memoir and her concerns about what might happen should Donald Trump win in 2024.

As Maddow put it, “I say this tonight, not for the gee whiz factor of me having Liz Cheney here tonight, me having somebody here tonight who you would never expect. I say this not for just the man-bites-dog weirdness of this. I say it because I think, in civic terms, in sort of American citizenship terms, I think it's really important how much we disagree. It's important how far apart we are in every policy issue imaginable. It is important that Liz Cheney is infinity and I am negative infinity on the ideological number line. It's important because that tells you how serious and big something has to be to put us, to put me and Liz Cheney, together on the same side of something in American life.”

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