Live Coverage Of NY’s Gay Marriage Vote Brings Maddow, Cooper Strong Ratings On Off Night For MSNBC, CNN

Cable news ratings, June 24, 2011:

•On Friday evening, both CNN and MSNBC provided live coverage of the New York vote on gay marriage, with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow extending her 9 p.m. show well into the 10 p.m. hour, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper remaining live with the story into the 11 p.m. hour. In their only head-to-head matchup, the 10 o’clock hour, Maddow prevailed over Cooper among viewers 25-54.

Both CNN and MSNBC were beaten by taped programming on HLN and Fox News, but the live breaking news coverage–which came on a slow summer Friday night–gave both networks their highest ratings of the evening between 5 and 10 p.m. (at 11 p.m., the prison documentary Lockup on MSNBC, won the timeslot among viewers 25-54)

•HLN’s extensive coverage of the Casey Anthony murder trial led the network to a first-place finish among viewers 25-54 Friday night, easily outperforming Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. The highest-rated hour of the evening was HLN’s Nancy Grace, which averaged 494,000 viewers 25-54 at 8 p.m. HLN’s Special Report also performed extremely well, with 469,000 viewers 25-54 at 5 p.m. Overall, HLN won among viewers 25-54 in prime time and total day, but Fox News finished first among total viewers for total day and in prime time.

Here’s the