Thursday’s Ratings: Erin Burnett Continues To Be Cable’s Biggest Enigma

Nando Di FinoNov 11th, 2011, 6:36 pm
 

The roller coaster ride that is the “Erin Burnett Ratings Watch” continued on Thursday night, as Burnett attracted just 89,000 viewers in the 25-54 year old demo at 7 p.m., givng CNN a fourth-place finish in the time slot, behind Shepard Smith, Chris Matthews, and Jane Velez-Mitchell. Further confusing things? Burnett’s re-air at 11 p.m. pulled in 181,000 demo viewers, which beat first-runs of Piers Morgan Tonight and John King, USA, earlier in the evening on CNN.

Just to clear heads, some other nuggets from Thursday:

  • Laura Ingraham was again guest-hosting for Bill O’Reilly, and she managed to retain the top spot at 11:00 with the re-air (on Wednesday, she was beaten by Anderson Cooper‘s coverage of the Joe Paterno firing.
  • MSNBC had an exceptionally strong night, finishing in second place in every time slot except for 5 p.m., when Wolf Blitzer squeaked by Matthews. Every prime time show on MSNBC attracted 200,000 or more viewers in the demo.
  • Conversely, CNN’s only finish in the top two came in that 5 p.m. slot, with Blitzer’s 213,000 demo viewers.

    • Average Time Slot Finish:
    Fox News: 1
    MSNBC: 2.14
    CNN: 3
    HLN: 3.86

    Here are the complete cable news ratings for Thursday night:

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

    355

    		 Blitzer 

    213

    		 Matthews 

    200

    		 Special 

    72
    6 pm Baier 

    530

    		 King, USA 

    115

    		 Sharpton 

    211

    		 Prime 

    113
    7 pm Shep 

    489

    		 Burnett 

    89

    		 Matthews 

    254

    		 Issues 

    155
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    613

    		 Cooper 

    212

    		 Schultz 

    291

    		 Grace 

    191
    9 pm Hannity 

    586

    		 Piers 

    175

    		 Maddow 

    321

    		 Dr. Drew 

    114
    10 pm Van Susteren 

    415

    		 Cooper 

    265

    		 O’Donnell 

    268

    		 Behar 

    117
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    315

    		 Burnett 

    181

    		 Schultz 

    211

    		 Showbiz 

    81
    TOTAL DAY 321 141 168 88
    PRIME TIME 538 218 297 138
    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 

    1,640

    		 Blitzer 

    700

    		 Matthews 

    931

    		 Special 

    210
    6 pm Baier 

    2,236

    		 King, USA 

    487

    		 Sharpton 

    833

    		 Prime
    332
    7 pm Shep 

    1,890

    		 Burnett 

    499

    		 Matthews 

    979

    		 Issues 

    377
    8 pm O’Reilly 

    2,791

    		 Cooper 

    849

    		 Schultz 

    1.069

    		 Grace 

    656
    9 pm Hannity 

    2,228

    		 Piers 

    873

    		 Maddow 

    1,101

    		 DrDrew 

    536
    10 pm Greta 

    1,647

    		 Cooper 

    741

    		 O’Donnell
    978    		 Behar 

    525
    11 pm O’Reilly 

    1,043

    		 Burnett 

    455

    		 Schultz
    623    		 Showbiz 

    359
    TOTAL DAY 1,330 515 622 284
    PRIME TIME 2,227 821 1,060 566
    Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data


    • (Image credit: Startraks Photo)

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