As Dow Dives, Viewers Flock To Fox News In Prime; CNN, MSNBC Have Rare Tie For Second
Cable news ratings, August 8, 2011:
•On a big news day, Fox opened strong with The Five and steadily grew a huge audience, with The O’Reilly Factor hitting 3.5 million total viewers and an average audience of 877,000 among viewers 25-54. CNN and MSNBC tied for second place in primetime among viewers 25-54 (each had an average audience of 227,000 viewers), but Fox News was dominant, more than doubling the two networks combined, with an average audience of 636,000.
•On the first official day of AC 360 at 8 p.m., Anderson Cooper–who reported live from the famine unfolding in Africa–fell to fourth place overall among viewers 25-54. AC 360 had an average audience of 140,000 viewers, compared to 172,000 for MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and 877,000 for Fox’s Bill O’Reilly.
At 10 p.m., Cooper was far more competitive, with an average audience in the demo of 310,000–beating MSNBC’s Ed Schultz (235,000) but taking second place overall to Fox’s Greta Van Susteren (512,000).
Here’s the full scoreboard:
| TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| 5 pm | The5
419 |
Blitzer
203 |
Matthews
191 |
Special
85 |
| 6 pm | Baier
469 |
Blitzer
238 |
Live
164 |
Prime
89 |
| 7 pm | Shep
518 |
King, USA
136 |
Matthews
189 |
Issues
107 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
877 |
Cooper
140 |
O’Donnell
172 |
Grace
153 |
| 9 pm | Hannity
518 |
Morgan
229 |
Maddow
273 |
DrDrew
101 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren
512 |
Cooper
310 |
Schultz
235 |
Behar
60 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
338 |
Cooper
188 |
O’Donnell
128 |
Showbiz
82 |
| TOTAL DAY | 372 | 198 | 114 | 89 |
| PRIME TIME | 636 | 227 | 227 | 101 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. | ||||
| TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 pm | The5
1801 |
Blitzer
837 |
Matthews
764 |
Special
322 |
| 6 pm | Baier
2079 |
Blitzer
686 |
Live
715 |
Prime
346 |
| 7 pm | Shep
1855 |
King, USA
491 |
Matthews
778 |
Issues
478 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
3579 |
Cooper
540 |
O’Donnell
872 |
Grace
749 |
| 9 pm | Hannity
2133 |
Morgan
769 |
Maddow
915 |
DrDrew
489 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren
1948 |
Cooper
714 |
Schultz
862 |
Behar
367 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
1227 |
Cooper
372 |
O’Donnell
452 |
Showbiz
291 |
| TOTAL DAY | 1331 | 538 | 455 | 293 |
| PRIME TIME | 2556 | 675 | 883 | 524 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data | ||||
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