Live Coverage Of NY’s Gay Marriage Vote Brings Maddow, Cooper Strong Ratings On Off Night For MSNBC, CNN

 

Cable news ratings, June 24, 2011:

•On Friday evening, both CNN and MSNBC provided live coverage of the New York vote on gay marriage, with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow extending her 9 p.m. show well into the 10 p.m. hour, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper remaining live with the story into the 11 p.m. hour. In their only head-to-head matchup, the 10 o’clock hour, Maddow prevailed over Cooper among viewers 25-54.

Both CNN and MSNBC were beaten by taped programming on HLN and Fox News, but the live breaking news coverage–which came on a slow summer Friday night–gave both networks their highest ratings of the evening between 5 and 10 p.m. (at 11 p.m., the prison documentary Lockup on MSNBC, won the timeslot among viewers 25-54)

•HLN’s extensive coverage of the Casey Anthony murder trial led the network to a first-place finish among viewers 25-54 Friday night, easily outperforming Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. The highest-rated hour of the evening was HLN’s Nancy Grace, which averaged 494,000 viewers 25-54 at 8 p.m. HLN’s Special Report also performed extremely well, with 469,000 viewers 25-54 at 5 p.m. Overall, HLN won among viewers 25-54 in prime time and total day, but Fox News finished first among total viewers for total day and in prime time.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

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

339

Blitzer

124

Matthews

119

Special

469

6 pm Baier

329

Blitzer

117

Live

96

Prime

350

7 pm Shep

356

King, USA

98

Matthews

122

Issues

382

8 pm O’Reilly

375

Morgan

70

O’Donnell

171

Grace

494

9 pm Special

274

Morgan

78

Maddow

235

DrDrew

326

10 pm Van Susteren

286

Cooper

152

Maddow

219

Behar

308

11 pm O’Reilly

252

Cooper

171

Lockup

305

Showbiz

203

TOTAL DAY 258 109 147 279
PRIME TIME 312 100 201 370
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 Beck

1698

Blitzer

556

Matthews

543

Special

1610

6 pm Baier

1825

Blitzer

373

Live

435

Prime

1055

7 pm Shep

1648

King, USA

262

Matthews

523

Issues

1206

8 pm O’Reilly

1970

Morgan

280

O’Donnell

720

Grace

1690

9 pm Special

1169

Morgan

403

Maddow

814

DrDrew

1178

10 pm Special

1108

Cooper

520

Maddow

583

Behar

887

11 pm O’Reilly

749

Cooper

526

Lockup

490

Showbiz

506

TOTAL DAY 975 351 402 880
PRIME TIME 1419 401 674 1229
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data
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