What A Difference A Year Makes: CNN Way Down, MTV Way Up And More

While I prepared to write about last week’s cable TV ranker, I noticed the cable ranker from the same week last year, sitting right next to last week’s.

So here’s some analysis of last week – and how much things have changed, or stayed the same, from 2009.

• Fox News remained the #3 cable outlet year-to-year, far ahead of the cable news competition last week and last year. It was down 200,000 viewers year-to-year in prime time and total day (where it was #7 overall last week), but it remained far ahead of the pack.

• CNN was down approximately 250,000 viewers year-to-year, but the percentage drop was much larger than FNC’s. CNN was #24 last year in prime time – it was #35 this year. The fall was not as dramatic in total day.

• MSNBC, however is up big. It went from #28 to #22 in prime time year-to-year, improving nearly 200,000 viewers – and perhaps more importantly, leap-frogging CNN. It also was up in total day.

• Last year at this time, there was no Snooki or The Situation. How unbelievable is that? A pre-Jersey Shore MTV could only muster a 30th place finish last year in prime time, with 595,000 viewers. Last week: MTV was 10th, with a 1,279,000 average.

• The top four networks in prime time, and three of the top four networks in total viewers, were the same year-to-year. How’s that for consistency.

Here’s last week’s cable ranker.

Here’s last year’s cable ranker.

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