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A day after having a Republican debate thrown into the mix, normalcy returned, somewhat, to the cable news ratings, with CNN falling back on its pre-debate numbers and FOX regaining a stranglehold on the top spot. There was, however, some notable movement buried in the ratings.

For instance:

  • Erin Burnett seemed to hold on to some of that younger crowd she discovered as the debate lead-in. She had been mostly occupying third place — with the occasional jump into second over Chris Matthews — in the 7 p.m. time slot (won handily by Shepard Smith, who did lose a few viewers from Tuesday night), but she scored a solid victory in the 25-54 year old age range on Wednesday. Matthews still beat Burnett with the overall viewers, but Burnett, who was broadcasting live in a rowdy Vegas outdoor setting on Tuesday, might be connecting with the specific demo.
  • John King doubled his 25-54 numbers, going from 73,000 on Tuesday to 148,000 on Wednesday, beating Al Sharpton — which doesn’t happen very often — for second place
    in the 6 p.m. slot. Again, Sharpton won the head-to-head overall viewer battle, but CNN took second in the 25-54 demo. CNN and MSNBC fans shouldn’t do the happy dance just yet; FOX’s Brett Baier still crushed both of them, outpacing their combined total numbers by about 800,000 viewers.
  • Lawrence O’Donnell, who MSNBC is moving from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday, beat Anderson Cooper at 8 p.m. by 361,000 viewers. Ed Schultz, the man taking O’Donnell’s place, only beat Cooper’s repeat by 190,000 two hours later. This could all be attributed to people still used to watching Cooper at 10 (he only got bumped up to 8 this summer). And Schultz did outpace O’Donnell with the 25-54 crowd.

    • Here are the complete cable news ratings for Wednesday night:

  • TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
    5 pm The5 

    369

    		 Blitzer 

    131

    		 Matthews 

    196

    		 Special 

    89
    6 pm Baier 

    375

    		 King, USA 

    148

    		 Sharpton 

    143

    		 Prime 

    122
    7 pm Shep 

    510

    		 Burnett 

    189

    		 Matthews 

    179

    		 Issues 

    126
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    708

    		 Cooper
    170    		 O’Donnell 

    169

    		 Grace 

    158
    9 pm Hannity 

    511

    		 Piers
    217    		 Maddow 

    248

    		 DrDrew 

    119
    10 pm Van Susteren 

    351

    		 Cooper 

    219

    		 Schultz 

    174

    		 Behar 

    141
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    436

    		 Burnett
    186    		 O’Donnell 

    120

    		 Showbiz 

    67
    TOTAL DAY 328 144 133 99
    PRIME TIME 524 202 197 136
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.
    TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
    5 pm The5 

    1,741

    		 Blitzer 

    645

    		 Matthews 

    864

    		 Special 

    426
    6 pm Baier 

    2,040

    		 King, USA 

    509

    		 Sharpton 

    699

    		 Prime 

    442
    7 pm Shep 

    1,970

    		 Burnett 

    535

    		 Matthews 

    864

    		 Issues 

    439
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    3,100

    		 Cooper
    486    		 O’Donnell 

    847

    		 Grace 

    617
    9 pm Hannity 

    2,142

    		 Piers
    693    		 Maddow 

    897

    		 DrDrew 

    515
    10 pm Greta 

    1,825

    		 Cooper 

    623

    		 Ed Show 

    813

    		 Behar 

    434
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    1,374

    		 Burnett394 O’Donnell 

    458

    		 Showbiz 

    299
    TOTAL DAY 1,303 463 492 337
    PRIME TIME 2,363 601 853 507
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data
    • Tags: Bill O'Reilly, Erin Burnett, Nancy Grace, Rachel Maddow, Ratings