Cable news ratings, March 4, 2011:

•As a general rule, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly never gets beaten in the overnight ratings. His 8 p.m. show on Friday, for instance, wasn’t even a strong night, but he had 641,000 viewers 25-54 and a total audience of nearly 3 million. His closest competition in the hour is MSBNC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, who had merely 254,000 in the demo and just over one million total viewers. So it’s not much of a fight. That is, unless you look at O’Reilly’s 11 p.m. rebroadcast. Those numbers are usually lower, and just for bragging rights, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow just barely edged O’Reilly’s repeat in total viewers, 1,218,000 to 1,202,000.

Now comparing Maddow’s 9 p.m. first-run numbers to O’Reilly’s 11 p.m. numbers isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, and it’s purely for entertainment value. And even in that off-kilter matchup, O’Reilly’s repeat still beat Maddow among viewers 25-54.

•At ten p.m., the tight race between CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Fox’s Greta Van Susteren continues–the two shows were close again Friday, with Van Susteren winning by 18,000 viewers in the demo. But among total viewers, Van Susteren remains far ahead, 1,545,000 to Cooper’s 671,000. Still, the advertiser-coveted demographic of viewers 25-54 is extremely important, and Cooper’s audience is giving him a big lift.

Here’s the full scoreboard:

TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 450	Blitzer 138	Matthews 134	Showbiz 41
6 pm	Baier 420	Blitzer 132	Live 149	Prime 89
7 pm	Shep 411	King, USA 143	Matthews 191	Issues 117
8 pm	O’Reilly 641	Special 176	O’Donnell 254	Grace 108
9 pm	Hannity 510	Morgan 265	Maddow 364	Missing 75
10 pm	Van Susteren 311	Cooper 283	Lockup 192	Behar 68
11 pm	O’Reilly 387	Special 249	Lockup 221	Showbiz 93
TOTAL DAY	368	169	176	86
PRIME TIME	488	242	270	84
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD)
5 pm	Beck 1863	Blitzer 636	Matthews 628	Showbiz 153
6 pm	Baier 2094	Blitzer 639	Live 547	Prime 240
7 pm	Shep 1731	King, USA 548	Matthews 690	Issues 387
8 pm	O’Reilly 2729	Special 443	O’Donnell 1020	Grace 443
9 pm	Hannity 1922	Morgan 634	Maddow 1218	Missing 269
10 pm	Van Susteren 1545	Cooper 671	Lockup 485	Behar 229
11 pm	O’Reilly 1202	Special 492	Lockup 448	Showbiz 199
TOTAL DAY	1381	495	518	226
PRIME TIME	2069	582	908	305
Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data

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Mark Joyella
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