The 2005 numbers are out. FNC easily came in first place for the fourth year in a row. CNN was a solid second place. MSNBC eeked out 3rd place over HLN. CNBC was fifth. HLN had the biggest overall gain of all five networks over a year ago thanks to its revamped lineup. CNN and MSNBC sported gains in the Demo while FNC lost viewers. MSNBC lost viewers in the P2+ category in Total Day and Primetime though not by much. It should be noted that MSNBC’s primetime lineup had a hole in it at 9pm which was filled by the low performing The Situation near the middle of the year. It wasn’t until Live and Direct took over that slot after half the year was over that MSNBC’s primetime lineup finally stabilized in the ratings in as much as 9pm wasn’t signficantly lower for it than any other time period as had been the case the first half of the year.
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CNN’s Jennifer Eccleston scored an exclusive interview with former Iraqi President Ayad Allawi. The interview aired earlier on Your World Today. Here is the full transcript of the interview…
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CNSNews’ Nathan Burchfiel writes about Hardball and its host Chris Mathews getting picked for year end raspberries by both sides of the political spectrum.

Note: CNSNews is an appendage of the MRC.

The host of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” is being slammed by two opposing media critics in their annual roundups of the worst examples of media bias.

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Tonight on Countdown Keith Olbermann returned John Gibson’s and Bill O’Reilly’s fire big time. I’d be spending the rest of the night transcribing the verbal assault so here are the highlights…

- He took on O’Reilly over his ratings comments from last week. Olbermann said that he never claimed that The Factor doesn’t draw more viewers than Countdown and recycled his “800 billion flies can’t be wrong” line he gave to TVNewser last week. Olbermann went on to say that O’Reilly never tries to refute the things Keith says he does but instead goes to the ratings. “That’s because the only things we’ve smeared O’Reilly with are his own quotes. To borrow another phrase, when you’re as guilty as he is, change the subject.”
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