Friday Ratings: Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree…But Not The TV

Nando Di FinoDec 19th, 2011, 6:51 pm
 

Friday nights are, as we’ve noted before, incredibly weird. But, on the day after a big debate, with people nursing GOP hangovers and the political scene otherwise quiet and essentially shut down for the holidays, it ends up being doubly weird. Mix in the fact that the weekend before both Christmas and Hanukkah is likely full of parties, shopping, and other distractions pulling us away from our beloved cable news shows, and things get even shakier. So it’s wise to take these exceptionally-low numbers — it cannot be stressed enough — with a grain of salt.

The first sign that things were off? MSNBC’s relatively low numbers for their specials at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. They normally pull far more viewers than they did this past Friday night, especially in the 25-to-54 year-old demo. And HLN, even though they often finish behind Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, had smaller-than-usual numbers, with all but one of their shows (Nancy Grace) failing to attract 100,000 demo viewers.

Some other Friday night nuggets:

  • On a night when everyone else trended low, The Five (obviously buoyed by Mediaite’s interview with Greg Gutfeld) pulled in a very impressive 401,000 demo viewers. It was the cherry on top of a wonderful week for the show, as it had its second-highest week ever in the ratings.
  • Joy Behar, who was canceled and is now fully in repeats until her show is completely taken off the air next month, still managed to beat every program on the HLN slate, save for Grace and Showbiz Tonight.
  • In a night where nearly everyone was markedly down in a bizarro evening of numbers, Erin Burnett gets a pass for having her second-lowest night in the ratings. The silver lining? She still beat Issues at 7 p.m. by 20,000 demo viewers. More silver lining? Year-end numbers show OutFront to be up in total viewers over last year.

    • 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 

    401

    		 Blitzer 

    132

    		 Matthews 

    102

    		 Special 

    50
    6 pm Baier 

    372

    		 King, USA 

    112

    		 Sharpton 

    135

    		 Prime 

    49
    7 pm Shep 

    312

    		 Burnett 

    78

    		 Matthews 

    119

    		 Issues 

    58
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    618

    		 Cooper 

    107

    		 Schultz 

    112

    		 Grace 

    131
    9 pm Hannity 

    429

    		 Piers 

    101

    		 Maddow 

    204

    		 Dr. Drew 

    54
    10 pm Greta 

    361

    		 Cooper 

    104

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    86

    		 Behar 

    62
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    456

    		 Burnett 

    95

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    166

    		 Showbiz 

    64
    TOTAL DAY 329 110 111 72
    PRIME TIME 470 104 134 82
    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 

    1,739

    		 Blitzer 

    682

    		 Matthews 

    627

    		 Special 

    172
    6 pm Baier 

    1,979

    		 King, USA 

    472

    		 Sharpton 

    692

    		 Prime 

    210
    7 pm Shep 

    1,727

    		 Burnett 

    332

    		 Matthews 

    576

    		 Issues
    272
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    3,027

    		 Cooper 

    353

    		 Schultz 

    704

    		 Grace 

    462
    9 pm Hannity 

    1,912

    		 Piers 

    435

    		 Maddow 

    942

    		 DrDrew 

    292
    10 pm Greta 

    1,351

    		 Cooper 

    424

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    351

    		 Behar 

    290
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    1,229

    		 Burnett 

    283

    		 MSNBC Inv. 

    438

    		 Showbiz 

    262
    TOTAL DAY 1,373 413 454 247
    PRIME TIME 2,111 404 666 344
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.
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