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.
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 | ||||