Quake Coverage Ratings: CNN Wins Demo; Fox News Wins Primetime; MSNBC Skips Story

Cable news ratings, March 11, 2011:

•On a night of major news in the form of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, viewers broke traditional patterns and flocked to CNN in huge numbers–every one of the network’s programs from 5 p.m. through 11 p.m. attracted more than a million viewers 25-54. Wolf Blitzer‘s Situation Room had the highest ratings of the night, hitting 1,346,000 viewers 25-54, more than Fox’s Shepard Smith, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and HLN’s Showbiz Tonight combined. However, Fox News was able to hold off CNN just barely in total viewers.

•MSNBC’s decision to stick with its standard Friday night fare, taped episodes of the prison show Lockup at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. proved costly, as the network’s already comparatively low ratings compared to Fox News and CNN collapsed as soon as the network went to tape. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who was soundly beaten by Fox’s Sean Hannity and CNN’s Piers Morgan, had a still respectable 456,000 viewers 25-54 (MSNBC’s highest ratings of the night). That number fell to 251,000 with Lockup at 10 p.m. By comparison, CNN’s Anderson Cooper had well over a million viewers more than MSNBC.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Shep 883	Blitzer 1346	Matthews 181	Showbiz 104
6 pm	Baier 809	Blitzer 1335	Live 213	Prime 128
7 pm	Shep 807	King, USA 1116	Matthews 192	Issues 141
8 pm	O’Reilly 859	InTheArena 1088	O’Donnell 272	Grace 140
9 pm	Hannity 737	Morgan 1105	Maddow 456	Missing 112
10 pm	Van Susteren 660	Cooper 1294	Lockup 251	Behar 83
11 pm	O’Reilly 505	Cooper 1124	Lockup 219	Showbiz 82
TOTAL DAY	724	1100	205	131
PRIME TIME	754	1163	327	110
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Shep 3103	Blitzer 3350	Matthews 697	Showbiz 246
6 pm	Baier 3020	Blitzer 2980	Live 687	Prime 284
7 pm	Shep 2918	King, USA 2496	Matthews 729	Issues 371
8 pm	O’Reilly 3504	InTheArena 2468	O’Donnell 1002	Grace 515
9 pm	Hannity 2504	Morgan 2695	Maddow 1256	Missing 347
10 pm	Van Susteren 2140	Cooper 2771	Lockup 518	Behar 216
11 pm	O’Reilly 1401	Cooper 2330	Lockup 423	Showbiz 235
TOTAL DAY	2273	2532	630	311
PRIME TIME	2719	2645	926	353
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data