Cable news ratings, March 18, 2011:
•CNN’s Anderson Cooper finished first among cable news shows Friday night, hitting 599,000 viewers 25-54. That was the highest-rated show on any network for the night, beating usual ratings news champ The O’Reilly Factor on Fox.
Overall, Fox News placed second in primetime among viewers 25-54 as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Piers Morgan and Cooper finished first in their timeslots. Fox was without two of its stars, though, with Juan Williams subbing for Bill O’Reilly and the network airing a special on Japan in Sean Hannity‘s 9 p.m. timeslot Friday, and CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight was first, with 388,000 viewers, just ahead of Fox’s 385,000. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show was a distant third (Maddow herself was off) with 154,000 viewers.
•After a week of third-place finishes for MSNBC’s primetime shows (with Fox News staying strong and CNN seeing significantly stronger ratings), MSNBC devoted an hour at 11 p.m. Friday to Japan, and that was the network’s best-rated hour of the night, with 274,000 viewers 25-54, well ahead of Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell and Maddow. The hour still placed third, however, behind timeslot winner Anderson Cooper on CNN, and Fox’s O’Reilly Factor (rebroadcast).
Here’s the full scoreboard:
| TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| 5 pm | Beck
438 |
Blitzer
470 |
Matthews
103 |
Showbiz
121 |
| 6 pm | Baier
372 |
Blitzer
387 |
Live
95 |
Prime
107 |
| 7 pm | Shep
437 |
King, USA
355 |
Matthews
146 |
Issues
143 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
515 |
InTheArena
339 |
O’Donnell
206 |
Grace
184 |
| 9 pm | Japan
385 |
Morgan
388 |
Maddow
154 |
Missing
91 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren
331 |
Cooper
599 |
Schultz
175 |
Behar
65 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
296 |
Cooper
423 |
Japan
274 |
Showbiz
96 |
| TOTAL DAY | 332 | 347 | 135 | 133 |
| PRIME TIME | 410 | 442 | 178 | 109 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. | ||||
| TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 pm | Beck
1799 |
Blitzer
1313 |
Matthews
620 |
Showbiz
285 |
| 6 pm | Baier
1739 |
Blitzer
1132 |
Live
544 |
Prime
216 |
| 7 pm | Shep
1667 |
King, USA
918 |
Matthews
603 |
Issues
371 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
2232 |
InTheArena
898 |
O’Donnell
814 |
Grace
551 |
| 9 pm | Japan
1548 |
Morgan
1029 |
Maddow
697 |
Missing
275 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren
1416 |
Cooper
1266 |
Schultz
704 |
Behar
250 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
847 |
Cooper
1022 |
Japan
594 |
Showbiz
274 |
| TOTAL DAY | 1270 | 908 | 473 | 296 |
| PRIME TIME | 1732 | 1066 | 738 | 348 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data | ||||
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