Joint Cable News Graduate Together Special Does Monster Saturday Ratings; Helping CNN Win Primetime in Demo
The joint cable news Graduate Together simulcast, featuring a commencement address from former President Barack Obama, pulled down huge ratings on Saturday night, helping CNN to a weekend sweep of primetime in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic.
Those three networks’ joint broadcast was the third most-watched program in all of television at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, and earned a combined 1.02 million viewers in the demo and 4.86 million overall across CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN took the lion’s share of the A25 – 54 viewers with 544,000, but a little less than half of overall viewers with 1.88 million. MSNBC pulled in 354,000 in the demo, and two million overall.
In the rest of Saturday primetime, Fox News’ Justice with Judge Jeanie lost in the demo to Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, 252,000 to 339,000, respectively. However, in total viewers, Fox News still won Saturday’s 9:00 p.m. time slot with 2.37 million to CNN’s 1.31 million. At 10:00 p.m., though, Fox’s The Greg Gutfeld Show (2.63 million; 412,000) was a notable bright spot for the network, handily winning total and A25 – 54 viewers against a second hour of CNN’s Situation Room, (1.13 million; 332,000).
CNN won all of Saturday primetime in the demo 405,000 to Fox News’ 261,000 in the demo. (MSNBC ended up in third with 238,000.) The network came in second in total viewers with 1.44 million, edging out MSNBC’s 1.35 million, while Fox News won easily with two million overall. CNN matched its A25 -54 primetime victory in daytime, as it beat out Fox News, 252,000 to 230,000 in the demo. And CNN eked out a primetime victory in the demo on Sunday as well, beating out Fox, 227,000 to 215,000, respectively, while the results reversed in total viewers, 1.03 million to 1.74 million).
Fox News, however, dominated the key Sunday morning news hours and won 10 out of 11 hours between 6:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on Sunday (296,000; 1.60 million), helping it to an easy daytime victory over CNN (229,000; 1.17 million) and MSNBC (116,000; 781,000).
The return to weekdays greatly improved Fox News’ fortunes, which cruised to victories on Monday in overall and A25 – 54 viewers in both daytime (317,000; 1.91 million) and primetime (627,000; 3.87 million). Leading the Fox charge was Tucker Carlson Tonight, which ranked as the top cable news show with 674,000 viewers in the demo (4.05 million overall) and Hannity which edged out its 8:00 p.m. lead-in in overall viewers with 4.11 million (608,000 in the demo).
