O’Reilly Wins at 8pm, But Big Night For Olbermann In Return

Cable news ratings, August 3, 2009: Check out the highlights, and see the full ratings below:

• As usual, Bill O’Reilly was the top-rated cable news host last night in both the A25-54 demographic and in total viewers. But in Keith Olbermann‘s return, and in his outright assertion of independence in the face of ‘Truce’-gate, the MSNBC host had a solid rating. 445,000 demo viewers watched, while 1,338,000 total. That was the top show on either MSNBC or CNN. (O’Reilly had 788,000 in demo and 3,504,000 viewers.)

• The lead-in helped Rachel Maddow‘s hour at 9pmET on MSNBC, who saw some of her best ratings recently with 400,000 in the demo and 1,255,000 total. That was good enough to beat every program on CNN.

• Sean Hannity held strong for FNC at 9pmET, with the 2nd best show of the night in the demo and total viewers.

• The top show on CNN was Larry King Live, who had an exclusive, and explosive, interview with Griffin O’Neal, Ryan O’Neal‘s son.

Check out all the ratings below, and leave your own thoughts in the comments:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck   635	Blitzer   113	Matthews   135	Prime   97
6 pm	Baier   447	Blitzer   105	EdShow   103	Prime   111
7 pm	Shep   366	Dobbs   228	Matthews   227	Issues   131
8 pm	O’Reilly   788	Brown   198	Olbermann   445	Grace   217
9 pm	Hannity   668	King   342	Maddow   400	Issues   128
10 pm	Greta   640	Cooper   255	Olbermann   302	Grace   162
11 pm	O’Reilly   460	Cooper   222	Maddow   182	Showbiz   159
TOTAL DAY	327	133	132	119
PRIME TIME	699	265	384	163
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck   2243	Blitzer   612	Matthews   615	Prime   222
6 pm	Baier   1908	Blitzer   456	EdShow   551	Prime   252
7 pm	Shep   1648	Dobbs   688	Matthews   771	Issues   325
8 pm	O’Reilly   3504	Brown   652	Olbermann   1338	Grace   675
9 pm	Hannity   2720	King   1155	Maddow   1255	Issues   369
10 pm	Greta   2184	Cooper   830	Olbermann   785	Grace   402
11 pm	O’Reilly   1419	Cooper   613	Maddow   532	Showbiz   329
TOTAL DAY	1247	578	422	266
PRIME TIME	2804	862	1128	498
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

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