MSNBC’s Stars Fade As Viewers Turn To Fox, CNN For Japan Coverage

Cable news ratings, March 14, 2011:

•The massive story still unfolding in Japan has viewers largely turning their backs on MSNBC, which notably aired taped programming Friday night and over the weekend. On Monday night, none of MSNBC’s programs between five and eleven p.m. could manage to beat CNN’s lowest-rated hour. The network’s best showing, Rachel Maddow, with 369,000 viewers 25-54, was still an also ran, easily defeated by CNN’s Piers Morgan (617,000) and Fox’s Sean Hannity (860,000).

Lawrence O’Donnell, in turn, was crushed by the recently poor-performing In the Arena on CNN, and the typically dominant Bill O’Reilly on Fox News.

•CNN’s Anderson Cooper came very close to catching the king of cable news, Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday. O’Reilly, who had 991,000 viewers 25-54, was the top-rated show in cable news. But Cooper’s AC360 came very close, with 909,000 viewers at 10 p.m. and 967,000 viewers at 11 p.m. Cooper’s 10 p.m. hour had nearly three times the ratings of MSNBC’s Ed Schultz.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 627	Blitzer 473	Matthews 149	Showbiz 90
6 pm	Baier 500	Blitzer 455	Live 172	Prime 116
7 pm	Shep 606	King, USA 544	Matthews 235	Issues 127
8 pm	O’Reilly 991	InTheArena 585	O’Donnell 313	Grace 136
9 pm	Hannity 860	Morgan 617	Maddow 369	Missing 123
10 pm	Van Susteren 590	Cooper 909	Schultz 307	Behar 87
11 pm	O’Reilly 522	Cooper 967	O’Donnell 214	Showbiz 113
TOTAL DAY	458	476	178	109
PRIME TIME	814	704	330	112
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 2273	Blitzer 1310	Matthews 702	Showbiz 188
6 pm	Baier 2253	Blitzer 1131	Live 617	Prime 244
7 pm	Shep 2267	King, USA 1193	Matthews 743	Issues 308
8 pm	O’Reilly 3698	InTheArena 1456	O’Donnell 987	Grace 477
9 pm	Hannity 2692	Morgan 1542	Maddow 1157	Missing 382
10 pm	Van Susteren 1906	Cooper 1904	Schultz 1002	Behar 251
11 pm	O’Reilly 1392	Cooper 1702	O’Donnell 579	Showbiz 286
TOTAL DAY	1596	1133	567	245
PRIME TIME	2767	1635	1049	359
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data