Cable news ratings, December 29, 2010:
•It’s only a race for second place, but for a network desperate for something to feel good about, Wednesday evening delivered: CNN’s Situation Room edged out MSNBC’s The Ed Show among viewers 25-54. Both shows had holiday week fill-in hosts, and it was a photo finish: 146,000 viewers to 145,000–far behind timeslot winner Special Report on Fox, with 321,000. (Ed Show did beat Sit Room among total viewers)
•Among total viewers, only one non-Fox News show between five and ten p.m. came anywhere near breaking one million viewers, and that was Hardball with Chris Matthews. The 7 p.m. airing attracted 783,000 total viewers, more than Countdown or Rachel Maddow. Over at Fox, every show between five and ten had more than a million total viewers, from Glenn Beck, with 1,217,000 to the more than 2 million viewers who watched The O’Reilly Factor.
Here’s the full scoreboard:
| TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
| 5 pm | Beck 227 | Blitzer 146 | Matthews 134 | Showbiz 57 |
| 6 pm | Baier 321 | Blitzer 146 | Ed Show 145 | Prime 45 |
| 7 pm | Shep 331 | King, USA 125 | Matthews 214 | Issues 90 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly 539 | ParkerSpitzer 88 | Olbermann 210 | Grace 163 |
| 9 pm | Hannity 418 | King 72 | Maddow 216 | Behar 124 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren 346 | Cooper 107 | Special 137 | Grace 96 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly 295 | Cooper 86 | Special 212 | Showbiz 82 |
| TOTAL DAY | 280 | 118 | 143 | 106 |
| PRIME TIME | 434 | 89 | 187 | 127 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. | ||||
| TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
| 5 pm | Beck 1217 | Blitzer 469 | Matthews 596 | Showbiz 153 |
| 6 pm | Baier 1764 | Blitzer 464 | Ed Show 628 | Prime 150 |
| 7 pm | Shep 1385 | King, USA 328 | Matthews 783 | Issues 289 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly 2117 | ParkerSpitzer 400 | Olbermann 741 | Grace 605 |
| 9 pm | Hannity 1521 | King 375 | Maddow 756 | Behar 397 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren 1232 | Cooper 548 | Special 280 | Grace 229 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly 905 | Cooper 330 | Special 405 | Showbiz 174 |
| TOTAL DAY | 995 | 308 | 386 | 260 |
| PRIME TIME | 1040 | 329 | 636 | 378 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data | ||||