Friday Ratings: Bret Baier Surges At 6 p.m.

Nando Di FinoDec 12th, 2011, 7:55 pm
 

Friday nights are always a little screwy in the ratings world, with MSNBC trotting out specials at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., and some hosts opting to cede their spot behind the desk to a guest anchor. On top of all that, it’s Friday. People go out, see movies, do stuff that tends to be a little more fun than sitting at home, watching a cable news repeat. In other words, take the Friday ratings with a much larger grain of salt than you normally would on any other night.

Still, at 6 p.m., who’s to say people aren’t getting dressed and showering as Bret Baier plays in the background? The Fox News anchor pulled in 436,000 viewers (in the 25-54 year-old demo) Friday evening, which was good for third place on the night (behind Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity). His overall numbers are even more impressive — Baier and O’Reilly were the only hosts on Friday night to draw over two million viewers.

Some other Friday night nuggets:

  • Rachel Maddow won the non-FNC ratings hunt, pulling 293,000 demo viewers, edging just ahead of the Lockup special at 11 p.m., which attracted 292,000. In overall viewers, though, Maddow had over a million people watching her, while Lockup managed just 351,000 .
  • Nancy Grace was the only HLN show to break six digits in the demo. Her 165,000 viewers almost doubled the second-best show, Issues, which had 85,000.
  • Greta Van Susteren had 350,000 demo viewers and 1,419,000 overall.

    • The rest of your Friday night ratings:

    TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
    Fox News CNN MSNBC CNN Headline News
    5 pm The5 

    396

    		 Blitzer 

    149

    		 Matthews 

    131

    		 Special 

    53
    6 pm Baier 

    436

    		 King, USA 

    124

    		 Sharpton 

    147

    		 Prime 

    64
    7 pm Shep 

    346

    		 Burnett 

    121

    		 Matthews 

    186

    		 Issues 

    85
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    600

    		 Cooper 

    154

    		 Schultz 

    215

    		 Grace 

    165
    9 pm Hannity 

    525

    		 Piers 

    137

    		 Maddow 

    293

    		 Dr. Drew 

    78
    10 pm Greta 

    350

    		 Cooper 

    205

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    208

    		 Behar 

    55
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    314

    		 Burnett 

    176

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    292

    		 Showbiz 

    73
    TOTAL DAY 318 128 162 81
    PRIME TIME 492 165 238 97
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.
    TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
    Fox News CNN MSNBC CNN Headline News
    5 pm The5 

    1,661

    		 Blitzer 

    576

    		 Matthews 

    775

    		 Special 

    176
    6 pm Baier 

    2,082

    		 King, USA 

    432

    		 Sharpton 

    750

    		 Prime 

    224
    7 pm Shep 

    1,830

    		 Burnett 

    392

    		 Matthews 

    787

    		 Issues
    248
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    2,962

    		 Cooper 

    561

    		 Schultz 

    906

    		 Grace 

    538
    9 pm Hannity 

    1,983

    		 Piers 

    711

    		 Maddow 

    1,041

    		 DrDrew 

    359
    10 pm Greta 

    1,419

    		 Cooper 

    608

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    460

    		 Behar 

    254
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    1,024

    		 Burnett 

    363

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    351

    		 Showbiz 

    227
    TOTAL DAY 1,359 459 546 227
    PRIME TIME 2,123 628 803 376
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.
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