CNN anchor Jim Acosta led his network to ratings victory by sweeping all seven hours of weekend programming he hosted among viewers in an advertiser-coveted demographic.
Acosta regularly wins large chunks of weekend days among viewers age 25-54 (sorry, 55-year-olds, you don’t matter apparently) but this week, Acosta congratulated his team for a rare sweep.
“Little shout out to my weekend team after we swept all seven hours in the key demo last Saturday and Sunday. Nice work,” Acosta wrote on Twitter.
According to Nielsen data, Acosta reached a high of 135,000 viewers in the bracket at 5 pm on Saturday and peaked Sunday evening with 165,000 in the demo, and beat his cable news competitors in each of the seven hours he hosted.
The Saturday and Sunday editions of CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta featured the sort of commentary and analysis that is particularly popular on cable news weekends that are often slower from a news perspective. Segments on ex-President Donald Trump’s then-impending arrest and previewing the Fox News debate were among the topics.
But CNN’s coverage last weekend was also heavy on coverage of a rare hurricane watch for the state of California, which by the tin eit hit landfall became the still-serious Tropical Storm Hilary.
Acosta conducted a newsmaking interview with San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, who told him “We are not used to this level of precipitation, generally. Certainly not in the middle of summer… We’re not built for this kind of rainfall.”
The result underscores the degree to which CNN ratings are somewhat at the mercy of the news cycle, and whether or not events going on in the world play to the network’s historical strengths — particularly with breaking news events with on-the-ground elements.
Acosta also delivered a seven-hour demo sweep in November, when interest in the midterm elections was at a fever pitch.
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