In Sean Hannity's first week battling Rachel Maddow in the 9 p.m. time slot, Fox News' Hannity beat MSNBC's Maddow in both overall viewers and in the key 25-54 age demographic.
On Tuesday, MSNBC announced "The Rachel Maddow Show" had finished the preceding quarter as the top cable news program overall and in the 25-54 demographic, Politico reported.
Fox's decision to move Hannity up an hour from 10 p.m. is part of an effort to counter MSNBC's ratings surge since the election of President Donald Trump.
During the first week of the face off, the Fox News host averaged 3,498,000 viewers from Monday through Thursday, while Maddow averaged 2,649,000.
In the key segment, Hannity beat Maddow 713,000 viewers to 599,000.
Hannity benefitted from the special election primary in Alabama and top guests, which included Steve Bannon, Bill O'Reilly, and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.).
Although Fox News can temporarily be proclaimed the "champion" of the 9 p.m. time, a senior media analyst who spoke to Politico said that if anybody should be worried, it's CNN.
"CNN is significantly underperforming, Fox News is performing roughly in line and MSNBC is growing dramatically," he said.