FOX had another huge evening. For starters FOX’s Demo beat CNN’s Total Viewer number in Primetime. On the Record broke another record for 2005 by coming within a whisker of 3,000,000 viewers. O’Reilly’s demo numbers beat Zahn’s total viewer number for the second night in a row. And, in what is getting dangerously close to going from being an occasional trend to becoming the norm, Grace beat Zahn. Larry King was flat last night considering the levels of the prior two CNN shows. MSNBC cratered in daytime. Not even the Shuttle launch was enough to keep MSNBC from 4th place. Hardball’s Boots On The Ground Special nearly sunk below The Situation for lowest rated MSNBC program. Abrams beat Cramer. Scarborough Country was big for MSNBC last night. Deutsch continues to scratch away in both the Total Viewer and Demo numbers.

(numbers courtesy of FOX News)

TOTAL DAY

FNC — 1,131,000
CNN — 465,000
HLN — 224,000
MSNBC — 203,000
CNBC — 127,000

Total Day 25-54
FNC — 343,000
CNN — 156,000
HLN — 101,000
MSNBC — 95,000
CNBC — 34,000 (scratch)

Primetime
FNC — 2,706,000
CNN — 655,000
HLN — 506,000
MSNBC — 319,000
CNBC — 78,000 (scratch)

PRIMETIME 25-54
FNC — 767,000
CNN — 223,000
HLN — 190,000
MSNBC — 150,000
CNBC — 36,000 (scratch)

Discovery Launch period 10-11AM (P 25-54 numbers in parentheses)

FNC — 1,661,000 (590,000)
CNN — 1,110,000 (283,000)
MSNBC — 350,000 (175,000)

Peak period

FNC — 2,078,000 (10:30-10:45)
CNN — 1,318,000 (10:30-10:45)
MSNBC — 458,000 (10:45-11)

MSNBC’s peak numbers are bizarre. They peaked after the shuttle lifted off but before NBC dumped coverage. So where did the viewers come from and why? Perhaps channel hopping occurred from one or more of the other channels to MSNBC after the launch was over to get another perspective. Or maybe people who were tuned in to the NASA channel switched over. Who knows?

Interesting that there’s less disparity between the peak and average numbers for CNN than for MSNBC or FOX. I’m not convinced about how significant that is as a statistic though…

Evening and Prime Time Breakdown

6PM
Special Report w/Brit Hume — 1,219,000
Lou Dobbs — 585,000
Abrams Report — 244,000
Mad Money — 207,000

7PM
FOX Report w/ Shepard Smith — 1,428,000
Anderson Cooper 360 (sub host) — 609,000
Hardball — 192,000
Showbiz Tonight — 125,000
Conan O’Brien (r) — 84,000 (scratch)

8PM
O’Reilly Factor — 2,705,000
Grace — 752,000
Paula Zahn Now — 623,000
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann (sub host) — 318,000
The Restaurant — 105,000 (scratch)

9PM
Hannity & Colmes — 2415,000
Larry King Live — 765,000
Prime News Tonight — 284,000
The Situation w/ Tucker Carlson — 178,000
Mad Money (r) — 77,000 (scratch)

10PM
On The Record w/ Greta Van Susteren — 2,997,000
Newsnight w/ Aaron Brown — 577,000
Grace (r) — 481,000
Scarborough Country– 462,000
Deutsch — 54,000 (scratch) 26,000 in P 25-54 (scratch)