CNN’s Piers Morgan Adds To Growing Lead Over MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow

Cable news ratings, March 23, 2011:

•With just a week left in March, CNN’s Piers Morgan is on pace to pass MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and take second place in the 9 p.m. hour for the entire month, a significant victory for CNN, and a blow to MSNBC’s reformatted primetime lineup (February was Maddow’s thirteenth consecutive month beating CNN among viewers 25-54). On Wednesday night, Piers Morgan Tonight beat Maddow among viewers 25-54 and total viewers, as Morgan continued to benefit both from CNN’s higher-than-normal ratings of late and MSNBC’s overall weakness. For the month, Morgan leads Maddow significantly in the demo, 408,000 to 343,000.

Fox’s Sean Hannity remains solidly in first place in the 9 p.m. hour, but an intriguing battle is underway in the Pacific time zone, when Hannity, Maddow and Morgan all go head to head at midnight ET/9 p.m. PT. In that hour, it’s far tighter between first and second place, with Hannity in front (339,000) but Morgan close behind (308,000). Maddow is far off in third place (196,000).

•At 10 p.m., Fox’s Greta Van Susteren reclaimed first place among viewers 25-54 with a win Wednesday night over CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Cooper, riding high ratings amid intense coverage of Libya and Japan, had won the hour (in the demo) for eight days. Wednesday night, Van Susteren won with 462,000 viewers 25-54, comfortably ahead of Cooper’s 384,000. MSNBC’s Ed Schultz was third with 235,000.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 558	Blitzer 298	Matthews 132	Showbiz 96
6 pm	Baier 508	Blitzer 261	Live 110	Prime 87
7 pm	Shep 549	King, USA 265	Matthews 137	Issues 96
8 pm	O’Reilly 837	InTheArena 194	O’Donnell 178	Grace 128
9 pm	Hannity 534	Morgan 324	Maddow 313	Missing 59
10 pm	Van Susteren 462	Cooper 384	Schultz 235	Behar 133
11 pm	O’Reilly 491	Cooper 382	O’Donnell 177	Showbiz 117
TOTAL DAY	406	259	124	111
PRIME TIME	611	301	242	103
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 2165	Blitzer 899	Matthews 605	Showbiz 309
6 pm	Baier 2176	Blitzer 775	Live 539	Prime 284
7 pm	Shep 1978	King, USA 734	Matthews 572	Issues 351
8 pm	O’Reilly 3230	InTheArena 622	O’Donnell 868	Grace 532
9 pm	Hannity 2181	Morgan 1154	Maddow 1031	Missing 300
10 pm	Van Susteren 1939	Cooper 1045	Schultz 900	Behar 404
11 pm	O’Reilly 1304	Cooper 817	O’Donnell 455	Showbiz 329
TOTAL DAY	1492	733	470	298
PRIME TIME	2450	940	935	403
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data