March Maddow-ness. 
 
 MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow dethroned Fox News’ Sean Hannity last month to seize the title of most-watched cable news host. 
 
 According to figures from Forbes, The Rachel Maddow Show turned in its best-ever performance with an average of 3.058 million viewers, compared to Hannity’s 3 million. 
 
 She also beat him among those aged 25-to-54 ― the demographic advertisers most covet ― with an average viewership from that group of 671,000 compared with 616,000 for Hannity. 
 
 Those are admittedly tight margins, but given Hannity’s long streak atop the charts ― just a month earlier Forbes hailed him as “the unrivaled King of Cable News” ― it’s a significant victory for Maddow nonetheless. 
 
 Nielsen ratings provided to HuffPost vary slightly from the Forbes figures, but report the same results ― Maddow’s March viewership edged out Hannity overall and among the key demographic. 
 
 According to Adweek’s TV Newser, Maddow’s viewership numbers have been strong throughout the year’s first quarter. For the period from Jan. 1 through March 31, she pulled a larger average audience than Hannity among the 25-to 54 year-olds. 
 
 Hannity, though, had the larger overall viewership during the quarter (the Fox News audience traditionally skews older than rivals like CNN). 
 
 CNN’s top-ranked host, Anderson Cooper, ranked a distant 10th among the 25-to-54 age group, and lower still for overall viewership, according to the Adweek quarterly figures. 
 
 MSNBC has enjoyed a ratings surge of late thanks to its position as a progressive foil to President Donald Trump. Its top three primetime hosts ― Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Lawrence O’Donnell ― have collectively branded themselves “The Resistance.” 

 In March, The Rachel Maddow Show finished as the highest-rated show in cable news, with an average total audience of 3.058 million viewers--the show's best-ever performance in the 9 p.m. ET hour. FNC's Hannity was second, with 3.000 million viewers. Maddow also won among viewers 25-54, the demographic most valued by advertisers, finishing March with an average audience of 671,000 compared to Hannity's 616,000. CNN finished a distant third in the hour, with 382,000 viewers 25-54. 
 
 MSNBC has been experiencing a dramatic rise in ratings, finishing the first quarter of 2018 as the only cable news network to grow compared to Q1 2017: MSNBC ratings were up 30%, while both Fox News and CNN experienced declines. 
 
 In March, MSNBC's programming in prime time, daytime and total day all broke records for the network. The network's prime-time lineup averaged 2.398 million total viewers, finishing as the No. 2 network across all of cable TV. While Fox News continued its run as the top-rated network in cable news, MSNBC's prime lineup was up 8% from 2017, while both Fox (down 18 percent) and CNN (down 16 percent) were off year-over-year. 
 
 The March ratings results suggest Fox News' unrivaled status as the dominant force in cable news may be facing one of the strongest challenges in years. 
 
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– Rachel Maddow is the most-watched cable news host, at least for now. The Rachel Maddow Show was the highest-rated show in cable news in March, with an average total audience of 3.058 million viewers compared to Sean Hannity's 3 million, Forbes reports. This is a big deal considering, as Huffington Post puts it, "Hannity’s long streak atop the charts." Maddow's MSNBC show also won among the coveted demographic of viewers aged 25 to 54, with an average audience of 671,000 in March compared to 616,000 for Hannity's Fox News show. MSNBC has been rising in the ratings in recent months as Fox News and CNN declined.