CNN’s Jim Acosta and Chris Wallace Ran the Table Last Weekend — Beat All Competition in Demo Across 8 Hours

CNN anchors Jim Acosta and Chris Wallace dominated the ratings across 8 hours over the weekend, beating Fox News and MSNBC in the key demo and total viewers for most of them.

Acosta anchored seven hours of CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta on Saturday and Sunday, including this interview in which Democratic Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego called former President Donald Trump a repellent influence on midterm voters and ripped Kari Lake’s “very trashy” campaign.

Perhaps buoyed by interest in the midterms, Acosta beat all his competition on Fox News and MSNBC in the key 25-54-year-old demo across all seven hours he hosted, and was number one in total viewers for six of those seven hours according to Nielsen figures.

Wallace anchors Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, which drops three full episodes each Friday morning, and CNN airs a version recapping highlights of the episodes every Sunday at 7 p.m.

This week’s episodes featured interviews with Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barry star and area Fonzie Henry Winkler, and Michelle Zauner of the alternative pop band Japanese Breakfast.

Even after three days of episodes being streamed on HBO Max, Wallace still beat the competition in the demo, with 142,000 viewers 25-54 years old to MSNBC’s 64k and Fox News’ 80k. Fox’s Sunday Night in America was number one in total viewers with more than 1.2 million viewers.

Wallace’s performance represents a marked improvement since the series came back after the demise of CNN+. According to the network:

• From the 1st episode (9/25/22) to the most recent (11/13/22) Chris is steady among total viewers and up +209% in the demo.
• The latest episode ranked #1 across cable news among P25-54 and is the highest episode, series-to-date (142k); +38% from the 2nd highest episode on 10/9/22 (103k).
• The episode was also up double digits vs. the prior-to-launch 4 Sundays (+42%).

The episode featured memorable moments that included AOC sharing her fear that she could be killed at any moment, Henry Winkler jumping the shark, and Zauner’s gripping account of grief over the loss of her mother.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the audience figure for Fox’s Sunday Night in America.