Last Word’s Biden Special Boosts MSNBC’s Thursday Ratings, But Still Falls Short of Fox, CNN in the Demo

Thursday night’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell special featuring extended interviews with presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and rumored VP candidate Stacey Abrams helped boost the network’s primetime ratings, but the show still fell short of CNN and Fox News in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic.

The big Democratic get by O’Donnell, which included a couple of newsmaking moments (but no vice presidential announcement) bumped its ratings roughly 10% in the demo and nearly 30% overall compared to Wednesday night’s numbers (376,000 Thur, 339,000 Wed; 3.08 million, 2.39 million). But despite this increase, Last Word still came in nearly 100,000 short of CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time in the demo (471,000) and more than 200,000 behind Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle (593,000). In total viewers, the Biden special offered better news for MSNBC at 10:00 p.m., as it scored a solid second place with 3.08 million, far ahead of CNN’s 1.67 million, but noticeably trailing Fox’s 3.73 million.

Fox News won primetime with 693,000 in the demo and 4.27 million overall viewers, besting CNN’s 450,000 and 1.54 million, respectively, and MSNBC’s 373,000 and 2.82 million. In daytime, CNN’s bounced back to victory in the demo on Thursday, after Fox News stopped its recent win streak on Wednesday. CNN edged Fox 328,000 to 298,000 in A25 – 54 viewers, with MSNBC in third at 203,000. Overall, the daytime battle was even more closely fought, with just 430,000 viewers separating first-place Fox News (1.88 million) and third-place CNN (1.45 million). MSNBC landed in between at 1.51 million.

Finally, the ratings drama at 11:00 p.m. continued apace on Thursday, as The 11th Hour snuck past Fox News at Night in overall viewers again, as it did on Tuesday, with 2.20 million to 2.02 million, respectively. In the demo, however, Fox News easily topped its MSNBC rival 437,000 to 309,000. Notably, Brian Williams’ ratings victory over Fox News came just hours after Sean Hannity mocked the lowly station that the former NBC Nightly News anchor had fallen to, dismissing him as a “late-night cable host.”