CNN’s Piers Morgan Closes Gap On MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow In Fight For Second Place

Cable news ratings, March 7, 2011:

•CNN’s Piers Morgan, who hit an all-time high rating last week with Charlie Sheen, drifted back to third place since, but had a strong performance Monday. Morgan had 286,000 viewers 25-54, just 33,000 viewers behind MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, whose show has been drawing exceptionally high ratings recently. The timeslot winner remains Fox’s Sean Hannity, who beat both Morgan and Maddow combined with 618,000 viewers.

•At ten p.m., CNN’s Anderson Cooper continues to present a challenge not just to MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, but to Greta Van Susteren at Fox News as well. Cooper’s AC 360 was the highest-rated non-Fox News show in cable news Monday, with 352,000 viewers 25-54. Cooper outdistanced MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, who had 305,000, and remained competitive with Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, who won the time period with 407,000.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 457	Blitzer 193	Matthews 157	Showbiz 66
6 pm	Baier 424	Blitzer 213	Live 150	Prime 98
7 pm	Shep 435	King, USA 229	Matthews 211	Issues 121
8 pm	O’Reilly 836	InTheArena 173	O’Donnell 256	Grace 205
9 pm	Hannity 618	Morgan 286	Maddow 319	Missing 115
10 pm	Van Susteren 407	Cooper 352	Schultz 305	Behar 121
11 pm	O’Reilly 423	Cooper 284	O’Donnell 204	Showbiz 114
TOTAL DAY	366	176	148	102
PRIME TIME	620	270	296	140
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 1774	Blitzer 668	Matthews 609	Showbiz 184
6 pm	Baier 1954	Blitzer 558	Live 633	Prime 254
7 pm	Shep 1788	King, USA 579	Matthews 754	Issues 388
8 pm	O’Reilly 3364	InTheArena 571	O’Donnell 1061	Grace 633
9 pm	Hannity 2293	Morgan 796	Maddow 1183	Missing 409
10 pm	Van Susteren 1523	Cooper 838	Schultz 960	Behar 338
11 pm	O’Reilly 1231	Cooper 571	O’Donnell 545	Showbiz 273
TOTAL DAY	1388	500	510	262
PRIME TIME	2396	737	1070	448
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data

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