Rachel Maddow Ratings: Beats Olbermann's "Countdown" To Be MSNBC's Top Show

The student has surpassed the master, at least for one night.

"The Rachel Maddow Show" was MSNBC's top-rated broadcast Tuesday night, unseating Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" as the network's top show.

Maddow drew 1.8 million total viewers compared to Olbermann's 1.6 million. Maddow also outdrew Olbermann in the advertiser-friendly 25-54 demographic, taking 25,000 more young adults than her lead-in "Countdown."

Full ratings numbers below (via TV By The Numbers):

8PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O'Reilly Factor- 3,060,000 viewers (731,000) (1,253,000)
Election Center-1,166,000 viewers (431,000) (576,000)
Countdown w/Keith Olbermann- 1,635,000 viewers (509,000) (771,000)
On the Money--207,000 viewers (65,000) (106,000)
Nancy Grace -1,166,000 viewers (412,000) (618,000)

9 PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Hannity & Colmes-3,136,000 viewers (716,000) (1,375,000)
Larry King--1,710,000 viewers (496,000) (801,000)
Rachel Maddow Show-1,801,000 viewers (534,000) (872,000)
Business of Innovation--a scratch w/102,000 viewers (a scratch w/42,000) (59,000)
Glenn Beck- 656,000 viewers (211,000) (354,000)

10 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
On the Record w/Greta--2,908,000 viewers (727,000) (1,367,000)
Anderson Cooper 360-1,828,000 viewers (647,000) (898,000)
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann-1,127,000 viewers (412,000) (616,000)
Saving General Motors-187,000 viewers (93,000) (121,000)
Nancy Grace -717,000 viewers (373,000) (420,000)

Update: The hosts of Morning Joe congratulated Rachel Maddow on her ratings success Thursday morning. Joe Scarborough, who has sparred with Maddow in the past, had particularly kind words for her, saying:

TV folk are some of the craziest folk I know, as Krusty the Clown might say. But she is a good, good person. We probably don't agree on anything politically. But she's respectful of people, and it's great. File this under, one of those good people doing well."

Watch:

Comments

[joannericec]

It's my new favorite show! I've always appreciated Rachel and her thoughtful, thorough and kind way of talking about issues and relating to people but getting to see her in action for an hour each night is fabulous! Truly the most intelligent, entertaining and well-spent hour of TV viewing there is. If anyone wants to know what's really going on, tune in.

[Bozwellian]

(perhaps being groomed for MTP FIRST FEM regular host....????? TIm's son needs a few years to get his broadcast legs and REALLY kinda would prefer sports venues but IF pressed will try to follow dads footsteps and blend (lol, sorta' ala Oberman who was/is primarily SPrts oriented but with a brain and the ability to use that brain regarding such as the political landscape ..Many do NOT give Oberman enough credit, take him as FULL TILT left when he does rachet up the whateverings AGAINST the Dems as well, just presently predominated by GOP reing holders, expect when the next crew moves in , will be equally assertive and uh, think it will be the Dems holding those reins and NONE are all that sure that they WILL make supreme difference, but will give them opportunity to prove one way or another !!!)

[Muffy7]

I think Luke Russert has a few miles to go before he is ready for prime time, if ever.

[darcylu]

Love Keith, love Rachel. It's all good.

[cactusgal]

My sentiments exactly!

[helloimwes]

Great to see Maddow stepping it up with the other talking heads.

Though, still very depressing to see that Fox lackies O'Reilly and Hannity pulling in 3 million plus viewers.

::sigh::

[jukesgrrl]

But most of them aren't long for this world. They just watch because Murder She Wrote got taken off the air.

[se7enMMBsg]

. . . I suppose they have to do "something" before the klan meetings start.

~se7en

[donorman]

msnbc 8pm- 3rd
msnbc 9pm- 3rd
msnbc 10pm- 3rd

I can't stop smiling :)

[RobertAndropolis]

Lotta intellectually challenged viewers out there, if this rating is to be believed. :(

[Aabby]

Exactly. It hurts many to think.

[erdanidi]

Try reading the article. 2nd at 9pm
Dolt.

[justathinker]

looks like larry king was 2nd at 9pm if you read the article. ray maddow 3rd, hannity and colmes 1st (as it should be)

[cariintexas]

I NEVER have watched Joe Scarborough and never plan to.another one i refuse to watch is David Gregory. He stacks his panel with rightwingers and drools everytime Mc Cain is mentioned.

[middlemarch]

i know i'm really going to get beat up here, but i used to be a fan of both keith and rachel. now, keith especially just seems so smarmy and a leftwing version of the right, i just can't watch him anymore. and rachel is associated with keith so.... can't anybody just do a show with minimum smarm, minimum "we're so smart, they're so dumb", minimum fake outrage, and just...

i do watch the shows to see who's on but i'm really pulling back from both of their personalities. it just gets so incredibly tiresome, all this gotcha.

[rw97]

I'm glad MSNBC/NBC grew a pair and gave her a show. Keith followed by Rachel is awesome. I'm looking forward to her upcoming "Talk Me Down" segments

[thecanadian]

Congratulations Rachel! You go girl! Loved to see you trouncing the ego maniacs and no reporting of CNN as well. Fantastic!

[CamJam]

The MSNBC evening news line up is our families favorite. And adding Maddow made it all the better. (Way to go Rachel!) And if we miss something, we often watch them online ! Way to go MSNBC!

We block the Fox Noise channel, and CNN has gone really strange the past 4-6 months therefore it's getting rare that we'll watch that channel now.

[LiberalDemIda]

Beautiful, kind, polite, astute, intelligent, articulate, well-read and informed... MSNBC is lucky to have fellow SoCal Gal, Rache.

You GO girl!

Thank you Keith for making it possible. Many of us know you were conducive to making MSNBC come around and hire Miss M.

America will be better off with a more fair and balanced Chris Matthews, a hard-hitting unapologetic Keith Olbermann and the incomparable and wonderful Miss M.

America might not deserve you three, but we sure as hell need you and are lucky we have you.

Obama/Biden '08/'12 = the SMART People's Choice

[hellenhat]

So true. And, did you see Chris finally playing "hardball" with Virginia's Eric Cantor last night?
These repugs are so slippery, it is hard to pin them down, but chris sure tried to put pins in his outrageous talking points....now, if we could just get the Sunday talking heads to come back at their half truths and lies.

Thanks, Chris, Keith and Rachel....what a trio!

[editorjuno]

She not from SoCal - she's from the Bay area and now lives in western MA (weekends) and NYC.

[longislandlol]

She would make the greatest Press Secretary to President Obama!

[se7enMMBsg]

. . . far as i know she's living in my former neck of the woods, Northampton, Ma.

~se7en

[FaceYourFears]

This is sort of like Palin/Mc cain!

[ECB]

Joe is Rush Lite !

[maying]

Love Ms. Maddow. She seems respectful of others' opinions even if they don't jive with hers. She has command of the facts and uses them accordingly. Love her show.

[shubes61]

i've had a theory about "morning joe."

MSNBC seems to have gained itself a reputation as being one of the most "liberal" news channels around... with keith and rachel (YAY rachel!), yeah, the MSNBC evening is very obama friendly... so they need to balance it out somehow.

ergo, joe.

i bet the producers of the show were encouraged to play up joe's more conservative tilt, so they could argue with people who say they're too liberal and say, "but what about joe scarborough?"

[eddiebly]

Pat Buchanan alone can balance out the "right"

[RobinSeattle]

Actually, iirc, Joe Scarborough pre-dates Keith's hiring on MSNBC. Scarborough had his own evening show on the network and it was actually fairly watchable, but when Imus got booted, they needed somebody to fill that morning slot and Scarborough got the job. By the time all that happened, Keith had come on board to help stabilize their evening lineup so that moving Scarborough wouldn't really hurt them.

[Clayton139]

I agree with all on here that, Rachel Maddow has added a new softer depth to all the issues on MSNBC…! I was going to thank MSNBC for giving her a show…! She’s great!
I like the lineup Hardball with Chris Matthews, he cuts no slack to a specific questions to get to the answers to issues, look at the way he wouldn’t cut no slack on R. Eric Cantor Sen. Virginia on 9/17/08 show.
Countdown with Keith Olberman tells us all the facts and shows us where he gets them too and we can decide. And, I think the Keith and Rachel has the same thoughts between there shows with each other. I think Keith O. has the upmost respect for Rachel M. for longer than we know on her intelligence. I love the way Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow touch base with each other before she starts her show. It seems she dissects all of Chris’s, Keith’s and her opinions on the issues in a smart, softer way. MSNBC has scored big with Maddow!!! 3 shows I watch every night…!