Friday’s Ratings: Lawrence O’Donnell Bids Adieu To 8 p.m. Time Slot By Finishing Second

By Nando Di FinoOct 24th, 2011, 6:01 pm
 

While FOX continued to pounce all comers in the ratings, it was MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell who made for the most intriguing storyline: Friday marked his last show at 8 p.m. (he’s being swapped with Ed Schultz and starts broadcasting at 10 p.m. tonight), and he went out with a bang, finishing in second place behind Bill O’Reilly in the time slot, (among adults, 25-54). Even more impressive, especially for those not interested in demos, was that O’Donnell was the only non-FOX show to attract over one million total viewers. He had the most total viewers of any show on MSNBC on Friday night.

Some other fun facts from Friday:

  • Greta Van Susteren had a strong night, grabbing more 25-54 viewers than Brett Baier managed earlier on the FOX schedule.
  • Dr. Drew and Joy Behar couldn’t manage to break six digits in the demo, as both finished with under 85,000 viewers. Showbiz Tonight, however, almost doubled its Behar (73,000) lead-in, snagging 135,000 in the 25-54 demo. In more Fun With Behar Numbers, Van Susteren nearly quintupled her in the demo.
  • Erin Burnett and John King both finished fourth in their original time slots. Burnett, Baier, and Behar all alliteratively finished last on their networks in the demo.
  • If you were looking for Ed Schultz on Friday night, so you could gently weep against the television screen during his last 10 p.m. show, you were out of luck. MSNBC aired two Lockdown episodes. The first, at 10 p.m., was the lowest-rated on the station in the demo all night. The second, at 11 p.m., ended up being the highest-rated show on the station in the demo on Friday night.

    • Here are the complete cable news ratings for Friday night:

  • TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
    Fox News CNN MSNBC CNN Headline News
    5 pm The5

    382

    		 Blitzer

    162

    		 Matthews

    166

    		 Special

    156
    6 pm Baier

    323

    		 King, USA

    122

    		 Sharpton

    169

    		 Prime

    151
    7 pm Shep

    410

    		 Burnett

    118

    		 Matthews

    172

    		 Issues

    142
    8 pm O’Reilly

    660

    		 Cooper

    174

    		 O’Donnell

    252

    		 Grace

    104
    9 pm Hannity

    482

    		 Piers

    168

    		 Maddow

    254

    		 DrDrew

    85
    10 pm Van Susteren

    349

    		 Cooper

    219

    		 MSNBC Investigates

    150

    		 Behar

    73
    11 pm O’Reilly

    369

    		 Burnett

    135

    		 MSNBC Investigates

    259

    		 Showbiz

    135
    TOTAL DAY 290 127 156 108
    PRIME TIME 502 187 219 85
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.
    TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
    Fox News CNN MSNBC CNN Headline News
    5 pm The5

    1,502

    		 Blitzer

    624

    		 Matthews

    609

    		 Special

    599
    6 pm Baier

    1,886

    		 King, USA

    485

    		 Sharpton

    689

    		 Prime

    586
    7 pm Shep

    1,779

    		 Burnett

    411

    		 Matthews

    792

    		 Issues

    604
    8 pm O’Reilly

    3,111

    		 Cooper

    587

    		 O’Donnell

    1,026

    		 Grace

    616
    9 pm Hannity

    2,055

    		 Piers

    699

    		 Maddow

    937

    		 DrDrew

    444
    10 pm Greta

    1,660

    		 Cooper

    655

    		 MSNBC Investigates
     

    319

    		 Behar

    347
    11 pm O’Reilly

    1,316

    		 Burnett

    376

    		 MSNBC Investigates
     

    416

    		 Showbiz

    329
    TOTAL DAY 1,228 435 444 339
    PRIME TIME 2,286 647 761 458
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data

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