Rachel Maddow Posted Her Worst Ratings Ever This Month

"The Rachel Maddow Show" posted all-time ratings lows in August, in a month that continued a ratings plunge that has prevailed throughout much of the year.

The show was down 43% in total viewers and 47% in the key 25-54 age demographic, respectively, from August 2012.

And overall, MSNBC posted ratings that were down 28% in total viewers and 32% in the demographic in the daytime, and down 36% and 32%, respectively, in primetime. For the 140th consecutive month in cable news, Fox News won the ratings war, and CNN slipped down to third place in both primetime and total-day viewers.

For MSNBC, the good news is that it beat out CNN in primetime ratings, coming in second place in primetime for the first time since April. CNN was up from anemic August 2012 numbers in both total viewers and in the demographic, posting 6% and 9% respective gains in primetime.

CNN's "New Day," which endured a rather brutal stretch last week, was only morning program across all three networks to increase its audience from a year ago. But it also slipped down to fourth in the demo, behind sister network HLN.

Fox News, meanwhile, was far out in front of the other networks, as it drew more total viewers than the other three networks combined in both total-day and primetime measures.

Fox owned the top 13 programs in cable news based on total viewers for the seventh consecutive month, and it notched 11 of the top 13 programs in the demo. Fox ranked sixth in all of basic cable ratings for the month, behind USA, History, TNT, TBS and A&E. Both CNN and MSNBC did not crack the top 30.