In First Week, CNN’s In The Arena Struggles To Hold Its Audience

Cable news ratings, March 2, 2011:

•The decision to transform CNN’s Parker Spitzer into a new show, In the Arena, more focused around host Eliot Spitzer came after many observed a strange trend: Parker Spitzer had far better ratings when co-host Kathleen Parker wasn’t on. In its debut week, that trend hasn’t quite held for In the Arena. The new show, which began Monday, has only had three nights on the air and making any conclusions this early would be unfair, but the show has lost viewers each night, from 124,000 viewers 25-54 on Monday to 114,000 Wednesday, for a fourth-place finish behind HLN’s Nancy Grace.

•A strong showing Wednesday for HLN’s Joy Behar, who came very close to catching MSNBC’s Ed Schultz. Behar, who had 238,000 viewers 25-54, was just behind Schult’s 247,000. Behar was in fourth place overall, behind CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, but she did claim one prize: the top-rated show of the night on HLN.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 484	Blitzer 122	Matthews 147	Showbiz 55
6 pm	Baier 402	Blitzer 168	Live 177	Prime 95
7 pm	Shep 525	King, USA 143	Matthews 211	Issues 124
8 pm	O’Reilly 896	InTheArena 114	O’Donnell 257	Grace 149
9 pm	Hannity 668	Morgan 229	Maddow 321	Missing 143
10 pm	Van Susteren 411	Cooper 301	Schultz 247	Behar 238
11 pm	O’Reilly 470	Cooper 180	O’Donnell 168	Showbiz 167
TOTAL DAY	365	161	148	111
PRIME TIME	658	215	275	175
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 1966	Blitzer 599	Matthews 673	Showbiz 238
6 pm	Baier 2074	Blitzer 588	Live 653	Prime 241
7 pm	Shep 1920	King, USA 518	Matthews 732	Issues 390
8 pm	O’Reilly 3277	InTheArena 470	O’Donnell 980	Grace 620
9 pm	Hannity 2130	Morgan 632	Maddow 1103	Missing 473
10 pm	Van Susteren 1732	Cooper 765	Schultz 1109	Behar 609
11 pm	O’Reilly 1360	Cooper 470	O’Donnell 559	Showbiz 359
TOTAL DAY	1414	494	539	291
PRIME TIME	2380	622	1064	561
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data

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