Even with the volatility of the numbers, there are always certain sureties every night in the ratings: Bill O’Reilly will win the night, Fox News will have seven of the top seven shows, and Rachel Maddow will usually be in the top three of the non-FNC shows. On Tuesday night, O’Reilly captured 742,000 viewers in the 25-54 year-old demographic, but Fox didn’t grab the entire Top Seven; Maddow, who still had the highest non-FNC show, grabbed 351,000 demo viewers, which put her in fifth place on the night. She topped Greta Van Susteren, The Five, and Shepard Smith.
Still, even with Maddow cracking the Top Seven, the bigger surprise Tuesday night was probably Lawrence O’Donnell, who pulled in a relatively strong 252,000 demo viewers. And not only did he capture a larger-than-normal audience, he pulled closer to Van Susteren in the ratings. Maddow is still far behind Hannity in the demo at 9 p.m., but O’Donnell — who had his show moved from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in October — now seems like the best threat to overtake a FNC show in the time slot (which, to be realistic, is a goal that seems entirely impossible for any show — O’Donnell’s just looks like the most likely). Van Susteren’s 332,000 viewers beat O’Donnell’s audience by just 70,000. There will have to be a perfect confluence of events for O’Donnell to overtake Van Susteren — continued strong lead-in performance from Maddow combined with further erratic ratings results from Van Susteren, for starters — but if there will ever be a crack in FNC’s impenetrable ratings armor, this is probably where it will occur.
Other nuggets from Tuesday night:
Tuesday night’s full ratings:
| TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| 5 pm | The5
312 |
Blitzer
175 |
Matthews
169 |
Special
88 |
| 6 pm | Baier
388 |
King, USA
113 |
Sharpton
165 |
Prime
140 |
| 7 pm | Shep
315 |
Burnett
145 |
Matthews
195 |
Issues
133 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
742 |
Cooper
139 |
Schultz
177 |
Grace
219 |
| 9 pm | Hannity
480 |
Piers
103 |
Maddow
351 |
Dr. Drew
121 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren
332 |
Cooper
173 |
O’Donnell
252 |
Behar
85 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
442 |
Burnett
114 |
Schultz
140 |
Showbiz
73 |
| TOTAL DAY | 310 | 130 | 146 | 90 |
| PRIME TIME | 518 | 139 | 260 | 138 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. | ||||
| TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 pm | The5
1,550 |
Blitzer
699 |
Matthews
769 |
Special
355 |
| 6 pm | Baier
1,990 |
King, USA
444 |
Sharpton
760 |
Prime 418 |
| 7 pm | Shep
1,745 |
Burnett
438 |
Matthews
844 |
Issues
622 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
3,296 |
Cooper
499 |
Schultz
884 |
Grace
622 |
| 9 pm | Hannity
2,188 |
Piers
720 |
Maddow
1,180 |
DrDrew
331 |
| 10 pm | Greta
1,672 |
Cooper
625 |
O’Donnell 956 |
Behar
333 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
1,190 |
Burnett
358 |
Schultz 548 |
Showbiz
274 |
| TOTAL DAY | 1,378 | 486 | 561 | 257 |
| PRIME TIME | 2,393 | 616 | 1,006 | 420 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data | ||||
(Image credit: Damian Dovarganes)
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