Big News Day Means Big Ratings For Both Fox News And CNN

During a heavy news day with coverage of Libya, the East Coast earthquake, and Hurricane Irene, both Fox News and CNN saw an significant increase of viewers of their cable news channels.

• Not surprisingly, FNC remained the most-watched cable news channel.  In fact, during both Total Day and Primetime, FNC beat both CNN and MSNBC combined in total viewers.  And in the 25-54 demographic, FNC again beat both CNN and MSNBC combined in Primetime and beat them both individually in Total Day. 

Also unsurprisingly, CNN saw a spike in their dayside numbers due to incredibly compelling front line coverage of the the unrest in Libya led by Sara Sidner and Matthew Chance (the later was being held in captivity by pro-Gaddafi captors.) As is often the case, hard news typically means increased viewers accross the CNN programming slate.

Here are the complete cable news ratings for Tuesday night:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	The5 412	Blitzer 517	Matthews 192	Special 173
6 pm	Baier 475	Blitzer 407	Live 169	Prime 130
7 pm	Shep 517	King, USA 317	Matthews 155	Issues 120
8 pm	O’Reilly 851	Cooper 384	O’Donnell 197	Grace 190
9 pm	Hannity 616	Morgan 275	Maddow 251	DrDrew 152
10 pm	Van Susteren 468	Cooper 294	Schultz 235	Behar 120
11 pm	O’Reilly 439	Libya Coverage 239	O’Donnell 192	Showbiz 122
TOTAL DAY	412	315	158	111
PRIME TIME	647	317	228	153
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	The5 1,614	Blitzer 1.527	Matthews 625	Special 452
6 pm	Baier 2,301	Blitzer 1148	Live 647	Prime 425
7 pm	Shep 1,942	King, USA 919	Matthews 584	Issues 548
8 pm	O’Reilly 3,360	Cooper 1,057	O’Donnell 732	Grace 696
9 pm	Hannity 2,395	Morgan 819	Maddow 966	DrDrew 494
10 pm	Greta 1,826	Cooper 862	Ed Show 812	Behar 440
11 pm	O’Reilly 1,299	Libya Coverage 611	O’Donnell 474	Showbiz 451
TOTAL DAY	1.547	872	529	355
PRIME TIME	2,527	913	837	536
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data