After The Drama Of Japan, Egypt And Libya, A Tight Race For Second Place In The Ratings
Cable news ratings, April 7, 2011:
•After an extended period as the solid third place network in cable news, the recent worldwide rush of huge stories–Japan, Egypt, Libya and others–propelled CNN for weeks into second place behind the Fox News Channel, and some of CNN’s shows, like Anderson Cooper 360, found themselves beating Fox. The international stories have cooled, and so has some of CNN’s ratings power. But the network has not returned to the lows it was experiencing just a year ago. Ratings for CNN so far in 2011 are still up 57 percent from the second half of 2010–and 46 percent compared to 2010 as a whole.
Still, some have noted a drop in overnight ratings for some of CNN’s primetime shows, with Bill Carter in The New York Times reviewing one night of ratings in detail and concluding “the cable news network’s prime-time lineup has not capitalized much on the attention its news coverage gained, returning for the most part to a steady finish in third place behind Fox News and MSNBC. The decline was illustrated by ratings from Wednesday night, when CNN lost across the board, finishing third in each of the three hours from 8 to 11 p.m.”
Thursday night didn’t stick to that script, with CNN easily beating MSNBC in primetime and total day among viewers 25-54. Anderson Cooper, singled out by the Times for a third place finish Wednesday, was back solidly in second place Thursday, with 406,000 viewers 25-54, easily outpacing MSNBC’s The Ed Show (251,000) but behind Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, who had 505,000. Cooper’s second hour, at 11 p.m., finished first, ahead of Fox’s rebroadcast of The O’Reilly Factor.
Overall Thursday, Fox News took first place each hour from five p.m. through 10 p.m., and CNN and MSNBC split the second place finishes. It’s unfair to draw any reliable conclusions based on one night (Thursday), but the overall fight for second place seems far less decided than it’s been in a long time.
Here’s the full scoreboard:
TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
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|
5 pm | Beck
450 |
Blitzer
181 |
Matthews
219 |
Showbiz
68 |
6 pm | Baier
444 |
Blitzer
203 |
Live
176 |
Prime
67 |
7 pm | Shep
444 |
King, USA
261 |
Matthews
220 |
Issues
108 |
8 pm | O’Reilly
638 |
InTheArena
218 |
O’Donnell
222 |
Grace
118 |
9 pm | Hannity
626 |
Morgan
321 |
Maddow
348 |
DrDrew
115 |
10 pm | Van Susteren
505 |
Cooper
406 |
Schultz
251 |
Behar
96 |
11 pm | O’Reilly
403 |
Cooper
408 |
O’Donnell
190 |
Showbiz
82 |
TOTAL DAY | 365 | 211 | 155 | 106 |
PRIME TIME | 590 | 320 | 273 | 108 |
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. |
TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
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|
5 pm | Beck
2062 |
Blitzer
753 |
Matthews
797 |
Showbiz
138 |
6 pm | Baier
1990 |
Blitzer
647 |
Live
646 |
Prime
163 |
7 pm | Shep
1912 |
King, USA
670 |
Matthews
704 |
Issues
244 |
8 pm | O’Reilly
3009 |
InTheArena
724 |
O’Donnell
1041 |
Grace
343 |
9 pm | Hannity
2456 |
Morgan
852 |
Maddow
1309 |
DrDrew
295 |
10 pm | Van Susteren
2039 |
Cooper
1008 |
Schultz
901 |
Behar
330 |
11 pm | O’Reilly
1424 |
Cooper
1095 |
O’Donnell
530 |
Showbiz
206 |
TOTAL DAY | 1483 | 602 | 557 | 216 |
PRIME TIME | 2502 | 899 | 1085 | 317 |
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data |
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