Thursday Cable Ratings: CNN Sees Continued Success in Demo with Missing Plane Coverage

One night after CNN’s Anderson Cooper beat Fox’s Bill O’Reilly in the 25-54 demo for the first time in nearly a year, he did it again, drawing 454K viewers in the demo to O’Reilly’s 429K. With wall-to-wall coverage of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, CNN’s Outfront with Erin Burnett and Piers Morgan Live had similarly rare victories over their respective Fox competition.

At 7pm, Erin Burnett averaged 366K in the demo, putting her at #1, ahead of Fox’s On The Record with Greta Van Susteren, which had 290K. At 9pm, Piers Morgan beat Fox’s The Kelly File 452K to 421K.

Fox’s prime time shows still held onto their commanding lead in total viewers, averaging 2.4M overall compared to CNN’s 953K. Meanwhile, MSNBC fell into third place across the board, except at 10pm when The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell came out ahead of CNN’s Chicagoland in total viewers.

Here are the rest of your Thursday ratings:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
6 – 9 am	Fox & Friends  300	New Day  119	Morning Joe  113	Express  80
5 pm	The Five  361	Blitzer  194	Schultz  81	Files  55
6 pm	Baier  350	Blitzer  273	Sharpton  144	Files  70
7 pm	Van Susteren  290	Burnett  366	Matthews  143	Velez-Mitchell  73
8 pm	O’Reilly  429	Cooper  454	Hayes  139	Grace  112
9 pm	Kelly  421	Morgan  452	Maddow  240	Dr. Drew  85
10 pm	Hannity  389	Chicagoland  218	O’Donnell  174	Minute  43
11 pm	O’Reilly  266	Cooper  236	Hayes  72	Files  123
PRIME TIME	414	374	184	80
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
6 – 9 am	Fox & Friends  1.122	New Day  368	Morning Joe  318	Express  184
5 pm	The Five  1.842	Blitzer  868	Schultz  474	Files  142
6 pm	Baier  1.797	Blitzer  802	Sharpton  584	Files  132
7 pm	Van Susteren  1.635	Burnett  910	Matthews  714	Velez-Mitchell  165
8 pm	O’Reilly  2.692	Cooper  1.121	Hayes  611	Grace  374
9 pm	Kelly  2.583	Morgan  1.162	Maddow  873	Dr. Drew  344
10 pm	Hannity  1.918	Chicagoland  574	O’Donnell  756	Minute  212
11 pm	O’Reilly  1.138	Cooper  565	Hayes  280	Files  344
PRIME TIME	2.400	953	747	310
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data