On Second Day Of Bin Laden Coverage, CNN Beats Fox At 5, 6, 10 And 11; Sweeps MSNBC (In Demo)
Cable news ratings, May 2, 2011:
•CNN’s hard news coverage of the U.S. mission that killed Osama bin Laden continued to bring big ratings to the network, beating MSNBC throughout primetime among viewers 25-54, and beating Fox News at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. The network’s strongest hour, at 10, saw Anderson Cooper‘s live coverage from Ground Zero attract an average 1,282,000 viewers in the demo, far ahead of Fox’s Greta Van Susteren (830,000) and MSNBC’s Ed Schultz (513,000).
Overall, CNN was the top rated network for total day, but fell behind Fox News in primetime (viewers 25-54) thanks in part to The O’Reilly Factor, which had the highest rating in cable news, with 1,336,000 viewers in the demo.
•CNN’s Piers Morgan, whose show was devoted to the death of bin Laden and featured former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuiliani and former British prime minister Tony Blair, had its second highest ratings among viewers 25-54 since the show’s launch, with 816,000. That was enough to beat MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (643,000), but not enough to beat Fox’s Sean Hannity (946,000).
Here’s the full scoreboard:
| TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| 5 pm | Beck
816 |
Blitzer
897 |
Matthews
319 |
Special
99 |
| 6 pm | Baier
791 |
Blitzer
921 |
Live
261 |
Prime
80 |
| 7 pm | Shep
1021 |
King, USA
877 |
Matthews
372 |
Issues
134 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
1336 |
InTheArena
638 |
O’Donnell
493 |
Grace
244 |
| 9 pm | Hannity
946 |
Morgan
816 |
Maddow
643 |
DrDrew
131 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren
830 |
Cooper
1282 |
Schultz
513 |
Behar
145 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
683 |
Cooper
857 |
O’Donnell
326 |
Showbiz
70 |
| TOTAL DAY | 756 | 810 | 363 | 139 |
| PRIME TIME | 1031 | 909 | 539 | 171 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. | ||||
| TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 pm | Beck
2706 |
Blitzer
2448 |
Matthews
1248 |
Showbiz
231 |
| 6 pm | Baier
2871 |
Blitzer
2481 |
Live
1057 |
Prime
262 |
| 7 pm | Shep
3131 |
King, USA
2191 |
Matthews
1174 |
Issues
440 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
4561 |
InTheArena
1553 |
O’Donnell
1592 |
Grace
614 |
| 9 pm | Hannity
3001 |
Morgan
2009 |
Maddow
1665 |
DrDrew
274 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren
2707 |
Cooper
2921 |
Schultz
1410 |
Behar
344 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
2166 |
Cooper
1971 |
O’Donnell
831 |
Showbiz
204 |
| TOTAL DAY | 2326 | 2010 | 1013 | 323 |
| PRIME TIME | 3397 | 2155 | 1555 | 404 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data | ||||
