On Night Of Casey Anthony Verdict, HLN Attracts Millions, As Cooper Wins 10 P.M. And Morgan Beats Maddow

Cable news ratings, July 5, 2011:

•On the day of the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, HLN set an all-time record for viewership, with a total audience of more than five million viewers at 2:15 p.m. when the verdict was revealed. In the evening, HLN had easily won primetime (viewers 25-54) and had noteworthy audiences for Special Report (898,000 viewers 25-54), Prime News (982,000), Issues (900,000) and Dr. Drew (940,000). HLN’s Nancy Grace, whose name became synonymous with coverage of the trial, had the highest-rated hour in cable news Tuesday night, with an average audience of 1,315,000 viewers 25-54 and nearly three million total viewers.

•In the wake of HLN’s massive audience on verdict day, Fox News slipped to second place overall in terms of viewers 25-54, and MSNBC dropped to fourth. CNN’s Anderson Cooper won the 10 p.m. hour with the highest rated hour outside of HLN (618,000 viewers 25-54). The network’s Piers Morgan also had a solid night, easily beating MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and coming within 34,000 viewers of Fox’s Sean Hannity.

Here’s the full scoreboard: