Friday Ratings: MSNBC Beats FOX At 9 p.m., 10 p.m., and 11 p.m. (In Demo)

Nando Di FinoOct 31st, 2011, 5:53 pm

Friday nights are always a little weird — MSNBC shows prison documentaries, and plenty of 25-54 year-olds are out from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., doing 25 to 54 year-old things. But Friday night had a few other elements in the mix — Monica Crowley was guest-hosting for Sean Hannity at 9:00, while On The Record ran a special on the economy at 10:00. The result? An unorthodox night of numbers, with FOX taking the first four time slots and MSNBC taking the final three (FOX, it must be noted, ruled primetime overall, continuing its dominance).

Some observations from Friday:

Rachel Maddow won the 9 p.m. slot by an estimated 3,000 viewers in the demo against Crowley (193,000 to 190,000). Piers Morgan, who finished third, with 174,000, just missed doubling up Dr. Drew, who landed in fourth with 74,000.

FOX actually finished third in the demo at 10 p.m., with the On The Record special finishing behind MSNBC Investigates and an Anderson Cooper re-run. Cooper’s first run at 8 p.m. was good for second place in the time slot, well ahead of Ed Schultz, but still far behind Bill O’Reilly.

Joy Behar pulled in a miserable 47,000 viewers in the demo at 10 p.m.

John King (at 6 p.m.) and Chris Matthews (at 5 p.m.) were the only two shows to finish behind any of the HLN shows all night. In fact, Crowley’s guest-hosting spin on Hannity at 9:00 beat Dr. Drew, Behar, and Showbiz Tonight‘s numbers…combined.

Here are the complete cable news ratings for Friday night:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)

5 pm

The5

340

Blitzer

121

Matthews

113

Special

115

6 pm

Baier

338

King, USA

Sharpton

138

Prime

107

7 pm

Shep

339

Burnett

162

Matthews

164

Issues

111

8 pm

O’Reilly

375

Cooper

212

Schultz

174

Grace

115

9 pm

Hannity

190

Piers

147

Maddow

193

Dr. Drew

10 pm

Greta Special

140

Cooper

142

MSNBC Investigates

208

Behar

11 pm

O’Reilly

187

Burnett

141

MSNBC Investigates

234

Showbiz

TOTAL DAY

262

118

141

PRIME TIME

235

167

192

Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)

5 pm	The5 1,513	Blitzer 536	Matthews 751	Special 368
6 pm	Baier 1,778	King, USA 363	Sharpton 702	Prime 453
7 pm	Shep 1,633	Burnett 437	Matthews 768	Issues 377
8 pm	O’Reilly 2,519	Cooper 498	Schultz 808	Grace 384
9 pm	Hannity 1,298	Piers 520	Maddow 801	DrDrew 263
10 pm	Greta Special 1,100	Cooper 499	MSNBC Investigates 351	Behar 214
11 pm	O’Reilly 912	Burnett 364	Schultz 426	Showbiz 218
TOTAL DAY	1,139	379	440	272
PRIME TIME	1,645	506	653	280
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data