Thursday Cable Ratings: Fox News #1, MSNBC Last in Demo During Obama Iraq Speech

When President Barack Obama took the podium at 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday night to announce humanitarian aid and military airstrikes in Iraq, Fox News was the most-watched cable news network in the 25-54 demo with 432K viewers. With 156K, MSNBC came in last place.

CNN, which interrupted The Sixties to cover the speech, came in second with 296K and HLN, airing its regular programming, was third with 167K.

In total viewers, Fox was #1 with 2.443M, followed by CNN with 903K and MSNBC with 706K. Fox’s Megyn Kelly and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow both took the night off, leaving Shannon Bream and Steve Kornacki to anchor the networks’ respective coverage.

Here are the rest of your Thursday ratings:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
6 – 9 am	Fox & Friends  237	New Day  114	Morning Joe  63	Express  125
5 pm	The Five  225	Blitzer  110	Schultz  59	Files  58
6 pm	Baier  252	Blitzer  104	Sharpton  90	Files  48
7 pm	Van Susteren  233	Burnett  114	Matthews  109	Velez-Mitchell  94
8 pm	O’Reilly  403	Cooper  208	Hayes  104	Grace  174
9 pm	Kelly  432	Sixties/Cooper  296	Maddow  156	Dr. Drew  167
10 pm	Hannity  327	Tonight  235	O’Donnell  116	Files  146
11 pm	O’Reilly  302	Cooper  230	Hayes  78	Files  122
PRIME TIME	388	235	126	162
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
6 – 9 am	Fox & Friends  900	New Day  346	Morning Joe  322	Express  345
5 pm	The Five  1.900	Blitzer  538	Schultz  459	Files  93
6 pm	Baier  1.866	Blitzer  508	Sharpton  512	Files  160
7 pm	Van Susteren  1.851	Burnett  546	Matthews  625	Velez-Mitchell  252
8 pm	O’Reilly  2.730	Cooper  700	Hayes  573	Grace  416
9 pm	Kelly  2.443	Sixties/Cooper  903	Maddow  706	Dr. Drew  355
10 pm	Hannity  1.846	Tonight  741	O’Donnell  565	Files  388
11 pm	O’Reilly  1.255	Cooper  582	Hayes  263	Files  358
PRIME TIME	2.354	758	619	386
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data