On Friday Night, Rachel Maddow Beats Sean Hannity’s Behind The Bias Special In Demo

Cable news ratings, April 22, 2011:

•On an overall down night for the cable news networks (O’Reilly didn’t even break 400,000 in the demo–a rarity), viewers chose MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow over Fox’s Sean Hannity special, Behind the Bias: The History of Liberal Media. Among key viewers 25-54, Maddow edged Hannity 348,000 viewers to 343,000 (Among total viewers, Hannity came in first). CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight was fifth (behind HLN and CNBC), with just 86,000 viewers for a repeat of a show featuring Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.

•At Fox News, the suggestion it could be the final edition of Glenn Beck‘s 5 p.m. program gave the show the network’s highest ratings of the night in terms of viewers 25-54, with 413,000 (beating all other shows in cable news in the demo for the night). Bret Baier was second, with 392,000, followed by The O’Reilly Factor with 369,000.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 413	Blitzer 94	Matthews 152	Showbiz 51
6 pm	Baier 392	Blitzer 109	Live 129	Prime 74
7 pm	Shep 360	King, USA 87	Matthews 139	Issues 80
8 pm	O’Reilly 369	InTheArena 77	O’Donnell 254	Grace 155
9 pm	Hannity 343	Morgan 86	Maddow 348	DrDrew 101
10 pm	Van Susteren 261	Cooper 130	Schultz 190	Behar 86
11 pm	O’Reilly 193	Cooper 146	O’Donnell 225	Showbiz 110
TOTAL DAY	263	121	152	88
PRIME TIME	325	97	264	112
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 1869	Blitzer 398	Matthews 707	Showbiz 176
6 pm	Baier 1905	Blitzer 414	Live 613	Prime 296
7 pm	Shep 1520	King, USA 341	Matthews 601	Issues 359
8 pm	O’Reilly 1854	InTheArena 357	O’Donnell 819	Grace 538
9 pm	Hannity 1403	Morgan 265	Maddow 959	DrDrew 212
10 pm	Van Susteren 1151	Cooper 399	Schultz 375	Behar 225
11 pm	O’Reilly 764	Cooper 359	O’Donnell 374	Showbiz 231
TOTAL DAY	1142	378	465	236
PRIME TIME	1470	340	718	322
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data