Friday’s Numbers…
Friday pretty much continued Thursday’s trends if your network acronym was CNN or HLN. Grace continues to annihilate Paula Zahn Now and is rapidly approaching 1,000,000 viewers. HLN beat CNN in the prime time Demo and again came close to beating it in Prime Time total viewers. On the other hand MSNBC cratered. Its highest rated evening/primetime program was Hardball and that was only 207,000. It can’t get much worse when The Situation outperforms Countdown by doing nothing in the ratings. Even Scarborough was under 200,000. FOX continues to operate from on high, totally out of reach of any of its competition.
(numbers courtesy of FOX News)
P2+ Total Day
FNC - 903,000 viewers
CNN - 406,000 viewers
HLN - 242,000 viewers
MSNBC - 168,000 viewers
CNBC - 142,000 viewers
25-54 Total Day
FNC - 247,000 viewers
CNN - 113,000 viewers
HLN - 104,000 viewers
MSNBC - 69,000 viewers
CNBC - 45,000 viewers [scratch]
P2+ Prime Time
FNC -1,725,000 viewers
CNN - 691,000 viewers
HLN - 615,000 viewers
MSNBC - 171,000 viewers
CNBC - 104,000 viewers [scratch]
25-54 Prime Time
FNC - 357,000 viewers
HLN - 225,000 viewers
CNN - 168,000 viewers
MSNBC - 78,000 viewers
CNBC - 65,000 viewers
7PM - P2+
FOX Report with Shepard Smith - 1,173,000 viewers
Anderson Cooper 360 - 502,000 viewers
Hardball - 207,000 viewers
Showbiz Tonight - 126,000 viewers
8PM - P2+
O’Reilly Factor - 1,956,000 viewers
Nancy Grace - 942,000 viewers
Paula Zahn Now - 437,000 viewers
Countdown with Keith Olbermann- 154,000 viewers
The Restaurant - 121,000 viewers
9 PM - P2+
Hannity & Colmes FNC - 1,492,000 viewers
Larry King Live - 1,084,000 viewers
Prime News Tonight - 420,000 viewers
The Situation with Tucker Carlson - 160,000 viewers
Mad Money - a scratch with 79,000 viewers
10 PM P2+
On the Record w/Greta Van Susteren- 1,726,000 viewers
NewsNight with Aaron Brown - 553,000 viewers
Nancy Grace ( r ) - 482,000 viewers
Scarborough Country - 199,000 viewers
Donny Deutsch - 112,000 viewers [scratch]
My observations:
1. Jon Klein is probably biting his fingernails and hoping Grace doesn’t top the million mark.
2. FNC’s demo #’s not so hot considering the high P2+ numbers it has. CNN had considerably less total BUT its P2+ to demo #’s look to be higher.
3. There’s no hope for MSNBC. PULL THE PLUG!
Comment by Anonymous — August 1, 2005 @ 7:18 pm
LOL. Pull the plug. I love it. Seriously, get better programming or put the channel out of its misery.
Comment by anonymous — August 1, 2005 @ 7:46 pm
It’s not a typical ratings night for MSNBC though. Countdown and Scarborough usually do much higher than that.
Comment by Spud — August 1, 2005 @ 8:28 pm
No excuse Spud. MSNBC is proving it has very few loyal viewers. For goodness sakes, HLN over took 3rd place in the cable news race. Pull the plug on MSNBC and put those resources in shoring up CNBC for the fight it will have against the FOX Business Channel.
As for CNN, I am still waiting to see if Klein has any tricks up his sleeve. I am suspecting the next week or two we could see some change in primetime. I just have that feeling a change in CNN primetime is on the way.
Comment by Anonymous — August 1, 2005 @ 9:15 pm
“For goodness sakes, HLN over took 3rd place in the cable news race.”
Exactly. No matter how you slice it or dice it, it is VERY pathetic (on MSNBCs part) that CNNHLN was able to whip up a 3 hour primetime block within a short period of time which continuously pounds MSNBC’s longer, more established primetime block. This has been going on for a solid number of months now, and there’s no sign of this stopping. I *HIGHLY* doubt Cosby’s new show is going to make much of a splash when it debuts next week…frankly, no one cares about MSNBC anymore. I agree with the poster above me…use MSNBC resources (including time, effort, money etc.) and put it towards CNBC, a highly profitable network which actually has a chance (if it could only rebuild its primetime programming…Mad Money is a very good start).
Comment by Reader — August 1, 2005 @ 10:42 pm
Klein’s been at CNN for eight months, what tricks can he possibly have left up his sleeve? Oh yeah, I forgot, the 3-hour block of Wolf Blitzer sprinkled with Bill Schneider and Jack Cafferty. That’s going to be a ratings bonanza. Can hardly wait!!
ZZZZzzzzzzz….
Comment by David — August 1, 2005 @ 11:38 pm
Doesn’t Klein have November to come up with something? It’s ridiculous how he’s screwed CNN. MSNBC needs to merge w/ CNBC or something. CNN HLN staffers must be laughing.
Comment by anonymous — August 2, 2005 @ 12:32 am