NEW YORK — For the first month since CNN’s Larry King owned cable news in October 2001, the most popular personality in prime-time doesn’t work for Fox News Channel. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC is the new champ.

Her network achieved other milestones in July, including its closest finish to Fox since 2000 and largest margin of victory over CNN ever. The numbers illustrate a surge in popularity at MSNBC, where politics has become prime-time entertainment. Like late-night comic Stephen Colbert can attest, having President Trump as a regular punching bag is great for business.

“I thought there would be a lot of interest in news,” MSNBC President Phil Griffin said. “I had no idea this would happen.”

It’s especially noteworthy because the year after an election traditionally signals a slump in cable news ratings. During prime-time weekday hours in July, Fox News averaged 2.36 million viewers – still more than any other cable network, news or entertainment. MSNBC was at 2.13 million and CNN at 961,000, according to the Nielsen company.

A wider view illustrates how things have changed. Earlier this year, Fox routinely had more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined. Those two networks frequently duke it out for second place; last November CNN averaged 1.83 million viewers to MSNBC’s 1.64 million, Nielsen said. MSNBC took over second earlier this year and the gap continues to widen.

MSNBC’s Maddow, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell follow Trump with a critical eye each evening. The rapid pace of new developments, often aided by the fierce competition for scoops between The New York Times, Washington Post and other outlets, gives MSNBC a fresh helping of outrage every night for Trump critics eager to lap it up.

“They’re not interested in someone looking to be impartial,” said Rick Kaplan, former president of both MSNBC and CNN. “They want the same kind of red meat that a lot of conservatives wanted from Fox 10 years ago.”

Griffin believes a key to MSNBC’s success is that its hosts aren’t just spouting talking points, that their programs contain solid reporting. Maddow’s ability to make connections and tell stories is beloved by fans who want to get absorbed by the issues, even if they can be frustratingly slow for the non-believers.

“People want depth,” he said. “This is a complicated time.”

CNN believes that MSNBC’s success doesn’t come at its expense. The network is on pace to have its second-highest prime-time viewership since 2008 and best ever in full-day ratings, Nielsen said. CNN also is comfortably profitable, with more advertising revenue at this point in the year than ever before, the network said.

Essentially, MSNBC’s surge is fueled by newbies, people who weren’t regular cable news viewers.

Maddow’s ratings victory comes with one asterisk: she no longer has Fox’s Bill O’Reilly to compete with. O’Reilly’s ouster in April after harassment charges, coupled with Megyn Kelly’s departure for NBC, leaves Sean Hannity as the one constant in Fox’s prime-time lineup.