Ratings Achievement! Rachel Maddow’s First Airing Beats Bill O’Reilly’s Re-Broadcast
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) | ||||
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|
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) | ||||
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|
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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