After two strong nights of exclusive interviews with participants in the George Zimmerman trial, CNN dropped to 3rd place in the prime time cable news ratings Wednesday night in both the 25-54 demo and total viewers. Fox News was #1 with 416K in the demo and 2.197M total. MSNBC was second with 241K in the demo and 734K total. And CNN was third with 219K in the demo and 575K total.
On Fox, The O’Reilly Factor led the night with 491K in the demo and 2.990M total viewers. For MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell had the highest demo rating with 281K while Al Sharpton, who aired an extended interview with Rachel Jeantel, had the highest total rating with 850K. And, on CNN, Anderson Cooper‘s 8pm broadcast had the highest demo rating with 228K while Piers Morgan had the highest total rating with 625K at 9pm.
Here are the rest of your Wednesday night ratings:
| TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
| 5 pm | The Five 255 | Blitzer 161 | Matthews 103 | Express 104 |
| 6 pm | Baier 259 | Blitzer 130 | Sharpton 226 | Express 113 |
| 7 pm | Smith 258 | Burnett 159 | Matthews 177 | Velez-Mitchell 158 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly 491 | Cooper 228 | Hayes 195 | Grace 213 |
| 9 pm | Hannity 439 | Morgan 209 | Maddow 246 | Dr. Drew 199 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren 317 | Cooper 220 | O’Donnell 281 | After Dark 151 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly 336 | Cooper 217 | Hayes 128 | Showbiz 95 |
| TOTAL DAY | 251 | 162 | 124 | 97 |
| PRIME TIME | 416 | 219 | 241 | 188 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. | ||||
| TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
| 5 pm | The Five 1.986 | Blitzer 532 | Matthews 637 | Express 239 |
| 6 pm | Baier 1.858 | Blitzer 418 | Sharpton 850 | Express 248 |
| 7 pm | Smith 1.553 | Burnett 440 | Matthews 641 | Velez-Mitchell 347 |
| 8 pm | O’Reilly 2.990 | Cooper 592 | Hayes 633 | Grace 468 |
| 9 pm | Hannity 2.087 | Morgan 625 | Maddow 779 | Dr. Drew 474 |
| 10 pm | Van Susteren 1.497 | Cooper 507 | O’Donnell 789 | After Dark 335 |
| 11 pm | O’Reilly 1.281 | Cooper 536 | Hayes 331 | Showbiz 255 |
| TOTAL DAY | 1.234 | 430 | 393 | 248 |
| PRIME TIME | 2.197 | 575 | 734 | 426 |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data | ||||