Fox News and MSNBC dominated basic cable ratings in the month of February, finishing first and second overall, ahead of HGTV, Turner and ESPN, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In total viewers for the top program in cable news, MSNBC and Fox News are both declaring victory for Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity, respectively.

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Fox News is basing its numbers on direct head-to-head matchups between the conservative Hannity and progressive Maddow that excludes evenings when guest hosts filled-in for Hannity, which invariably result in lower viewership.

In that head-to-head scenario, Hannity averaged 3.165 million viewers per night, first in cable news. "Tucker Carlson Tucker CarlsonPebble Mine executives eye future expansion in recorded conversations Ex-Pence aide: Trump spent 45 minutes of task force meeting 'going off on Tucker Carlson' instead of talking coronavirus Biden town hall draws 3.3 million viewers for CNN MORE Tonight" was second with 3.087 million viewers and MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" third with 3.067 million viewers.

Fox News’s "The Five" was fourth with 2.641 million viewers, with "The Ingraham Angle" rounding out the top-five with 2.489 million tuning in on weeknights.

When factoring in Hannity guest hosts, Maddow takes the top spot in both total viewers and the age 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet most, with 549,000 viewers to Fox’s 526,000 in that category during the 9 p.m. hour.

In head-to-head matchups in the demographic with Hannity hosting, he takes first with 575,000 viewers in the category, with Carlson and Maddow tied for second with 549,000. Ingraham comes in fourth with 459,000 in the demo and "The Five" fifth with 415,000 viewers.

The No. 1 overall program for the month of February was Fox News's coverage of President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE's State of the Union address, which delivered 11.3 million viewers. The speech was postponed from late January to early February due to the 35-day partial government shutdown.

CNN finished tenth in total viewers for the month, behind Investigation Discovery. Its highest-rated program was "Cuomo Prime Time" with 1.287 million viewers, which came in 23rd overall but eighth in the 25-54 demographic.

Cuomo jumped from co-anchoring CNN's morning program, "New Day," last June and has been the network's highest-rated anchor since.