With election interest keen, Fox’s Carlson strong in ratings

FILE - In this March 2, 2017 file photo, Tucker Carlson, host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio, in New York. Carlson says he felt a moral obligation to meet with President Donald Trump to warn him about the seriousness of coronavirus. He told Vanity Fair that while he didn't feel it was his role, his wife convinced him to request the meeting, which took place on March 7. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK — Tucker Carlson drew the television equivalent of a royal flush on the week before Labor Day.

The Fox News Channel personality had all five of his weeknight programs land in the Nielsen company’s 20 most popular programs last week. Four of them were in the Top 10.

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Fox’s Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, as well as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, all had programs in the Top 20 last week, a reflection of interest in the presidential campaign as well as the relative paucity of entertainment options on broadcast television.

Hannity’s program landed in the Top 20 three times, including two nights the host was on vacation.

None of the broadcast networks topped an average of three million viewers in prime time last week.

NBC, with 2.82 million, narrowly edged ABC’s 2.81 million viewers. CBS had 2.6 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1.2 million, Fox had 1.17 million and Telemundo had 1.1 million.

Fox News Channel led the way among cable networks, averaging 3.43 million viewers in prime time last week. MSNBC had 2.11 million, TNT had 1.74 million, ESPN had 1.49 million and TLC had 1.28 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.2 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million.