Look what happened to Rachel Maddow's ratings after Mueller's Russia investigation ended

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who goes toe-to-toe with Fox News powerhouse Sean Hannity every week night, has seen her ratings plummet after beginning the new year on a ratings high.

Data provided by Nielsen Media Research shows that MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" fell to fifth in total viewers this month, trailing "Hannity," "Tucker Carlson Tonight," "The Ingraham Angle," and "The Five."

Maddow averaged 2,487,000 primetime viewers this month, a slight improvement over June's average nightly viewership of 2,450,000. However, the numbers are a far cry from the 3,067,000 viewers Maddow averaged in February, the last time her average ratings eclipsed 3 million.

Maddow's ratings plummet began in March and April when she garnered just 2,886,000 and 2,630,000 viewers, respectively.

The downturn corresponds with the end of former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Maddow had built a major audience on the back of the investigation — often competing for first or second place in primetime ratings — by placing special significance in Mueller's investigative minutiae.

However, Maddow's narrative collapsed in late March after Attorney General William Barr announced Mueller had concluded the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia.

Immediately, Maddow's audience also collapsed, shedding nearly 500,000 average viewers, the Daily Beast reported in March.

July also marked the first time since October 2018 that Maddow was not in the top three of most-watched cable news shows.

What were the rest of July ratings?

Fox News dominated the competition, averaging 2,438,000 primetime viewers, a slight increase from June.

Meanwhile, MSNBC averaged just 1,503,000 primetime viewers and CNN averaged a dismal 797,000 nightly primetime viewers. Both networks saw decreases from June.

July marked the 37th consecutive month that Fox News was most-watched network among total viewers, and the 211th consecutive month the network was the most-watched cable news channel.