By Don Irvine ——Bio and Archives--December 2, 2010
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
For the big midterm election month, Fox News held its firm lead over the cable news pack, but it was its news programming that really shined, outrating many of the channel’s opinion shows. Today Day (Mon-Sun): 1.20M total viewers/308K A25-54 Primetime (Mon-Sun): 2.15M total viewers/527K A25-54 Special Report with Bret Baier and Fox Report with Shepard Smith were the highlights for November, with Baier’s program finishing second only to “The O’Reilly Factor” in total viewers (though not the key demo). Smith’s program finished fourth among all FNC programs in the key demo. Likewise, Megyn Kelly‘s hour got a huge bump compared to the same time last year. “America Live was up +20% in total viewers and +4% in the demo.As for MSNBC
For the fifth straight month in a row, MSNBC topped CNN in Total Day in both A25-54 viewers and Total Viewers. MSNBC also beat CNN by 51% in A25-54 viewers and by 36% among Total Viewers in primetime. “Morning Joe” topped CNN’s “American Morning” for the 9th consecutive month in Total Viewers and fourth month in a row among A25-52. “The Ed Show” beat CNN for the 9th consecutive month in Total Viewers and 5th consecutive month in A25-54. “Hardball” beat CNN for the 10th consecutive month in Total Viewers and 9th consecutive month in A25-54. “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” beat CNN for the 33rd month in Total Viewers and A25-54. “The Rachel Maddow Show” beat CNN’s “Larry King Live” for the 10th straight month in Total Viewers and among A25-54.And finally CNN.
CNN was #32 in all of cable this month in both Total Viewers and among A25-54 viewers. “Larry King Live” was ranked 20th in Total Viewers and 26th in viewers A25-54 among cable news shows. “Anderson Cooper 360? was ranked 21st among A25-54 viewers and Total Viewers in cable news shows. “Situation Room” was ranked 22nd among cable news shows in Total Viewers and 28th among viewers 25-54 CNN’s “Parker Spitzer”ranked 25th among Total Viewers and 33rd among viewers A25-54 in cable news shows. The CNN show is down 35% in Total Viewers and down 28% in A25-54.Fox and MSNBC to a lesser extent have found success by appealing to a very specific political demographic while CNN chose the middle path and has completely lost its way. As I reported yesterday about Kathleen Parker being unhappy with being steamrolled by co-host Eliot Spitzer it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if she left the show before CNN dumps it in light of these ratings.
Support Canada Free Press
View Comments
Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media and its sister organization Accuracy in Academia. As the son of Reed Irvine, who launched AIM in 1969, he developed an understanding of media bias at an early age, and has been actively involved with AIM for over 30 years.