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: