CNN’s John King Beats Fox’s Shepard Smith In Rare Demo Win As CNN Rises, MSNBC Falls

Cable news ratings, March 16, 2011:

•In a clear sign of how much impact a major international story like Japan has had on CNN’s ratings, one need only look at John King, USA. The show that has improved in recent weeks from dangerously low ratings earlier in the year last night took first place among viewers 25-54, beating Fox’s Shepard Smith. JK,USA had 608,000 viewers to Smith’s 554,000. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was a distant third, with 210,000.

Among total viewers, Smith (2,033,000) prevailed over King (1,371,000).

•Overall, CNN beat Fox News in primetime among viewers 25-54, with the network’s shows at 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. all coming in first place. Fox News won in terms of total viewers. But MSNBC has seen its ratings slide significantly all week, with its typically well-rated shows, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell each failing to break 250,000 viewers in the demo. By comparison, CNN’s lowest-rated hour, the 5 p.m. version of Situation Room, had 387,000 viewers 25-54.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 562	Blitzer 387	Matthews 157	Showbiz 83
6 pm	Baier 486	Blitzer 559	Live 172	Prime 68
7 pm	Shep 554	King, USA 608	Matthews 225	Issues 135
8 pm	O’Reilly 767	InTheArena 608	O’Donnell 210	Grace 198
9 pm	Hannity 580	Morgan 510	Maddow 245	Missing 156
10 pm	Van Susteren 586	Cooper 916	Schultz 189	Behar 121
11 pm	O’Reilly 488	Cooper 895	O’Donnell 123	Showbiz 78
TOTAL DAY	417	477	155	96
PRIME TIME	644	679	215	156
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 2183	Blitzer 1294	Matthews 672	Showbiz 191
6 pm	Baier 2020	Blitzer 1354	Live 581	Prime 173
7 pm	Shep 2033	King, USA 1371	Matthews 720	Issues 332
8 pm	O’Reilly 3315	InTheArena 1471	O’Donnell 872	Grace 568
9 pm	Hannity 2166	Morgan 1276	Maddow 887	Missing 378
10 pm	Van Susteren 1964	Cooper 1986	Schultz 861	Behar 366
11 pm	O’Reilly 1299	Cooper 1620	O’Donnell 477	Showbiz 193
TOTAL DAY	1509	1122	518	248
PRIME TIME	2482	1578	873	428
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data

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