Newsmax Beats CNN in Prime-Time Rating

Newsmax made history Friday night, beating competitor CNN in key prime-time ratings.

According to Nielsen – and first reported by Mediaite – Newsmax's live coverage of former President Trump's Pennsylvania rally pushed the network ahead of CNN in audience viewership.

Newsmax pulled 738,000 total viewers between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET, with an evening prime-time average of 579,000 viewers.

Laggard CNN peaked at 645,000 viewers during Anderson Cooper's show, drawing an average audience of just 545,000 on Friday night.

The Nielsen numbers do not tell the full story. Newsmax is carried in 20 million less homes than CNN, giving it proportionately a much higher rating than its competitor.

The Nielsen numbers do not include Newsmax's massive OTT streaming audience, which the network estimates often almost doubles the Nielsen rating during Trump rally coverage and other programming.

For the past year, Newsmax has consistently held the position as the fourth-highest-rated cable news channel in the U.S. and a top-20 cable channel in daytime, according to Nielsen.

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