Roland Martin Boasts of Beating Fox and CNN in Demo with Primetime Mo’Nique Interview

We here at Mediaite look at cable ratings on a daily basis, and let’s just say this is something you don’t see every day:

HOT RATINGS NEWS! @TVOneTV’s #NewsOneNow Sunday prime time news special Mo’Nique Uncensored BEAT @CNN AND @FoxNews in the 25-54 demo!

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) March 24, 2015

At 10 pm, @tvonetv’s #NewsOneNow Mo’Nique Uncensored: 144K 25-54 viewers. @CNN’s hyped @BillWeirCNN show: 139K. @FoxNews’ @FBNStossel: 77K.

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) March 24, 2015

Indeed, those numbers check out. During Sunday’s 10 p.m. ET primetime slot, Martin’s special News One Now interview with Mo’Nique pulled in 144k demo viewers, compared to CNN’s 139k and Fox’s 77k.

So why exactly is Roland Martin so happy about this? Well, think of the context: He left CNN in 2013 to host morning show News One Now on TV One, a cable channel that primarily targets an African-American audience. Up against TV One’s availability in only 57 million American homes, Fox and CNN — 87 and 97 million, respectively — are Goliath by comparison.

In other words, this is like Martin going up against the big boys and beating them in primetime. We should note MSNBC’s Investigates series beat everyone with a 177k demo rating at 10 p.m., but us ratings sticklers will allow Martin the chest-thumping here. Two out of three ain’t bad. And it’s a pretty damn unusual feat.

— —

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!