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Wednesday Ratings: CNBC’s Debate Rules The Night

» 10 comments

We don’t usually get into the CNBC ratings, but it’s hard to ignore the performance of the network’s Your Money, Your Vote debate on Wednesday night. Not only did the debate’s ratings best every other show in prime time, it actually got stronger in its second hour, increasing from 947,000 viewers in the 25-54 year-old demo at 8 p.m. to 1.039 million at 9 p.m. It also pulled in 3.201 million total viewers for its first hour and 3.462 million in its second.

The bad news? The debate was just the sixth-highest, ratings-wise, in the crop of 2011 debates. Fox News still rules the roost with their September debate, while Wednesday’s CNBC debate fell between the ratings of CNN’s Tea Party debate and Fox News’ Republican debate in May.

Some other nuggets from Wednesday:

  • CNN scored a rare No. 1 win at 11 p.m. with Anderson Cooper‘s live coverage of Joe Paterno‘s firing. The FNC victim? A repeat of The O’Reilly Factor that was guest-hosted by Laura Ingraham.
  • HLN had been pulling out some second-and-third-place finishes over the last month, but they landed in fourth in every time slot on Wednesday.
  • The night after Nancy Grace was booted from Dancing With The Stars, she led the HLN pack, in terms of demo viewers, pulling in 141,000 at 8 p.m.
  • Average Time Slot Finish:
    Fox News: 1.14
    CNN: 2.43
    MSNBC: 2.43
    HLN: 4

    Here are the complete cable news ratings for Wednesday night:

  • TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
    Fox News CNN MSNBC CNN Headline News
    5 pm The5 

    355

    Blitzer 

    130

    Matthews 

    170

    Special 

    76

    6 pm Baier 

    378

    King, USA 

    114

    Sharpton 

    198

    Prime 

    87

    7 pm Shep 

    456

    Burnett 

    138

    Matthews 

    228

    Issues 

    115

    8 pm O’Reilly 

    525

    Cooper 

    223

    Schultz 

    195

    Grace 

    141

    9 pm Hannity 

    444

    Piers 

    172

    Maddow 

    241

    Dr. Drew 

    115

    10 pm Van Susteren 

    415

    Cooper 

    346

    O’Donnell 

    275

    Behar 

    101

    11 pm O’Reilly 

    287

    Cooper 

    304

    Schultz 

    193

    Showbiz 

    99

    TOTAL DAY 283 157 136 90
    PRIME TIME 462 247 237 117
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.
    TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
    Fox News CNN MSNBC CNN Headline News
    5 pm The5 

    1,651

    Blitzer 

    699

    Matthews 

    820

    Special 

    259

    6 pm Baier 

    2,247

    King, USA 

    584

    Sharpton 

    757

    Prime
    333
    7 pm Shep 

    2,035

    Burnett 

    480

    Matthews 

    902

    Issues 

    434

    8 pm O’Reilly 

    2,373

    Cooper 

    652

    Schultz 

    804

    Grace 

    603

    9 pm Hannity 

    1,775

    Piers 

    553

    Maddow 

    852

    DrDrew 

    487

    10 pm Greta 

    1,991

    Cooper 

    901

    O’Donnell
    1,115
    Behar 

    427

    11 pm O’Reilly 

    1,029

    Cooper 

    666

    Schultz
    728
    Showbiz 

    363

    TOTAL DAY 1,188 479 506 301
    PRIME TIME 2,048 702 924 498
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data
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    • Anonymous

      Yes, conservatives always bring in the highest ratings for the beleaguered lib networks.

    • Anonymous

      “CNBC’s Debate Rules The Night”

      First time for anything.

      I notice that every network that airs the repub debates get a huge jump in ratings. I also think that reflects how bad of a position Obama is in. Every time he gives a speech or addresses the nation, people simply don’t watch. They don’t give a shit. They don’t give a shit about Obama. That most likely explains the reason why Obama spent the last year and a half on the campaign trail. ( you know, when between vacations) Obama is scared. He knows his bottomless piggy bank,AKA the White House, is no longer a sure thing after 2012. He knows he’s losing the American people. Not the “liberals and progressives” of course, Obama is well aware that they are unthinking drones that will vote for him regardless because their programming demands it. But when it comes to free thinking individuals, that’s a completely different story. The debates show that the American people are shopping around the political field to find a replacement for the mistake they made in 2008. I believe that never again will the American people pick an unqualified stooge to be POUTS out of emotion. Never again will the American people make such an embarrassing mistake. 

      But the left will make that mistake. They will make that mistake again and again and again. I don’t blame them, however. They just don’t know any better.

    • Anonymous

      It was the Clown show.
      Very entertaining!
      A new reality show.

    • Anonymous

      OMG!
      You are so full of shit!

    • Anonymous

      It was a great reality show.

    • Anonymous

      Sharpton beat the Union Hack Blob at 8 on MSNoBodyCares in the “all important demo!”

      Hahahahahhahahahahahahaha!

      Race Pimp at 8:00!   Sorry Race Baiting@6 Resist We Much, couldn’t resist.  I live for Ed Schultz’s failure.  :)

    • RACE BAITING@6 RESIST WE MUCH!

      MIC CHECK   RACE PIMP @ 8 !!

    • Anonymous

      You are 100% human waste.

    • Anonymous

      Maybe if Maria had known the CNBC was going to do so well in the ratings she might have washed her hair before the debate.  She also might not have demonstrated an even uglier side by getting snotty with Newt when he questioned the logic of: “Describe how you would fix the US healthcare system in 30 seconds”.

      I thought it was a good debate in-spite of the moderators.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JCNQVQBDCMVUDR6UCZ6GBEHCUY Johnny

      All these candidates seem like a bunch of phonies…except for Ron Paul. Too bad he doesn’t have a better relationship with Lobbyists. He then might have a better chance of winning lol 

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