News vs. News: CNN’s Ratings Far Surpass MSNBC’s During The Day
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CNN has long maintained they are the newsiest cable news network, and it’s been an answer they’ve stuck to as their prime time ratings have declined.
When looking at November ratings, in news vs. news hour comparisons, CNN far surpasses MSNBC – while Fox News maintains a huge lead overall.
From 9amET-4pmET, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC are all in news programming (obviously, some would argue differently, but this is the conventional wisdom). During that time, CNN tops MSNBC in every hour in total viewers, and in the A25-54 demographic, the difference between the two networks is even more glaring. Before we get into the breakdown, Fox News has an enormous lead over all networks in every hour, in every category.
At 9amET-4pmET, MSNBC finished in 5th place, behind FNC, CNN, HLN and sister-business network CNBC. Those include some of their newer programs, like Morning Meeting and Dr. Nancy. During all of these hours, except 9amET, CNN finished 2nd in the demo, with HLN 3rd and CNBC 4th.
In total day, CNN and HLN beat MSNBC during November in the demo. Despite the win by CNN over MSNBC, it should be noted both networks had their worst months of 2009 in total day demo.
Beyond 4pmET, questions about news and opinion start entering the picture, as FNC’s Neil Cavuto takes over. And obviously, during prime time, MSNBC, HLN and FNC are all in opinion programming. MSNBC can claim a big victory over CNN during that time – as can CNN’s sister network HLN. But at 8pmET, HLN’s Nancy Grace once again topped MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann in the demo. Fox News, of course, was way ahead of them all.
CNN’s November release pressed their news chops, and their silver medal victory (Fox News no longer is even a competitor) over MSNBC during those hours. And another thing took place – due to the huge ratings during 2008 for the election, CNN omits it and says it is positioned for their best year in five years for today day and prime time, in total viewers and the demo. This shouldn’t be diminished – and neither should the daytime comparison.
While prime time has largely been a focus here and elsewhere, the daytime hours are important as well. And as Fox News leaves the competition in the dust, CNN can claim a head-to-head, news vs. news victory over its new major competitor, MSNBC.
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12 comments
Why would any Liberal watch MSNBC during the day? Those who say that MSNBC and fox are the same in their partisan slants are way off. We Liberals often wait for clips on youtube or the blogs for those occasions when they do have someone of note on but, for the most part they are often guilty of parroting the talking points of the GOP and even Democrats uncritically. Allowing guest to come on and flat out lie unchecked destroys their credibility. It’s the same reason we don’t watch This Week or Meet The Press. See, we don’t care if it’s Democrats or Republicans doing the lying. We hate whoever is doing it and those who allow them to. And Chris Matthews’ “enemy camp” contention is a perfect example. And his half assed walk “back that wasn’t” is even more embarrassing.
I could take this opportunity to say something about one of the MSNBC hosts whom I consider unwatchable, but instead…
Fox wins because there’s a huge number of people who turn it on and just leave it. My experience is that they tend to be older and more conservative, but they generally turn it on for background noise.
I’m the same way with CNN. If I’m not holding the clicker, I generally put the kids TV onto PBS and I turn mine to CNN and if I’m not running it in the background, if I just want to catch up on what’s happening today, my first stop is always CNN.
So CNN is also the first loser in the morning. You can’t completely trust CNN or FNC, they both lie and present their specialized version of the truth to their viewers and the saps eat it up.
Anyone who gets their news from one source is a fool and they deserve what they get.
I get my news from multiple sources, but FNC is my prime station for TV news. I never turn to ABC, CBS, or NBC…and apparently I’m smarter as a result. Twelve days and counting since the news about the “greatest scientific fraud in our generation” was revealed, and Katie, Brian and Charlie are SILENT! CLearly, one cannot count on them for real news.
As for MSNBC, I tune in on occassion, used to watch them for the laugh factor, but they have gone off the deep end (Matthews and West Point being “an enemy camp” is a prime example of off the deep end stuff). I watch Rachel’s show on occasion, but she doesn’t hold my attention. I don’t care at all for Hannity’s show.
CNN is dead for me, has been for a long time. Between Campbell Brown’s vicious attack on Palin when she deputed on the scene, Anderson’s “teabagging” stuff, and Klein insistence they do “real journalism” when they really don’t is just too much for me.
I’m mostly thankful that Al Gore invented the internet — without it, the truth would never get out. Although I did laugh when I read that Jon Stewart took on Al Gore and the climategate scandal and the internet. Funny that Stewart can “report” on climategate but Katie, Brian, and Charlie seem to be ignorant on the topic.
@TfT, But you are not the typical uninformed Kool-Aid drinking viewer that these particular news organizations build their viewership on. If everyone was like you (and me) Wolf Blitzer, Keith Olbermann, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Campbell Brown, Katie Couric, and Anderson Cooper would be greeting people at Walmart. . . . if they are lucky!
Uuuuh Magister, do you even know how they measure the ratings?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_ratings
Of course it’s not perfect, but…
@SWWT: Yes, I know how they measure ratings.
I don’t have a Nielsen box, but just as they are supposed to measure a representative sample, I have to assume that I represent a sample of their measure.
And, because the average age of the United States has been inching up for a while, due to a variety of factors, I don’t know, but I have to assume that if Nielsen is being true to their statistical model, the average age of Nielsen participants has also been inching up.
IOW: I don’t have a box, but one would think there’s somebody like me who has a box or their numbers would be off, and one assumes that Nielsen samples are based on population statistics, which means that not only would there be some older folks who leave Fox on all day in their sample, but because the average age of the country has been increasing, there’s likely more people my age and older being measured.
OK – I just checked and the “more people my age and older” is likely untrue because I’m what most people would call significantly older than the median. But still, the population has been aging and this has to be reflected in the Nielsen numbers.
Magister says:
December 2, 2009 at 4:13 pm
That’s not how ratings work. Your turning the television on, or Bob down the road leaving it on while he takes a shower does not contribute to ratings. You need to do some research on how Nielsen collects data… it may surprise you (it surprised me… but that was back in college).
As for age differences… they do split out “demo” and “non-demo” folks… so your answer should be in there somewhere. Although, I’m not sure the relevance of the age differences (actually, I just don’t think they’re relevant, I understand the concept behind “demo” numbers).
Well, they do have a 25-54 or whatever demo rating numbers too. Which I think goes too far on the high end anyway. They should at least publish the 18-35 or whatever numbers as well.
@ImNotBlue: Hopefully I clarified what I meant to imply with my first comment in my most recents, but if we are to believe Nielsen numbers, there has to be a me and a Bob in the sample.
@SWWT: I’m almost positive that Nielsen breaks their numbers down further, but that’s a pay product and it sounds like Steve was working for this press release.
If you ask me, it probably wouldn’t behoove any of the news networks to try and highlight their 25 to 35 because my experience is that people in that age group don’t watch a lot of news comparatively, so by including more folks over 35, it gives them better totals.
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