Thursday’s Numbers…
In a case of inconvenient timing, CNN’s ad attacking FNC came out the same day as the ratings for Thursday in which MSNBC beat CNN in the Demo. Who was on Imus yesterday? That was a very large number for his show.
Unanswered question: How much longer before MSNBC rethinks its weeknight longform strategy now that its live programs are consistently outperforming the canned programming that follows? The Doc Block is now MSNBC’s primetime ratings weak link.
UPDATE: Well…maybe not, if you count Demo viewers…
9 pm - 239,000 viewers/20 share (Scarborough M-Th, Doc Fr)
10 pm - 238,000 viewers/21 share (Doc M-Fr)
11 pm - 226,000 viewers/24 share (Doc M-Fr)
Even though 10 and 11 have less overall Demo viewers than Scarborough, they have a higher share. And the distance between the shows for Demo viewers is negligable. Ok, I was wrong. There isn’t compelling evidence from a Demo standpoint that the Doc block is weaker than the programs that preceed it. Ergo MSNBC will not be rethinking this anytime soon. Anybody got a crowbar to get my foot out of my mouth?
Cable News Daily Ratings for February 1, 2007
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 945,000 viewers
CNN – 491,000 viewers
MSNBC – 354,000 viewers
CNBC – 266,000 viewers
HLN – 200,000 viewers
P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,954,000 viewers
CNN – 804,000 viewers
MSNBC – 568,000 viewers
CNBC – 391,000 viewers
HLN – 369,000 viewers
25-54 Total Day
FNC – 284,000 viewers
CNN –156,000 viewers
MSNBC – 144,000 viewers
CNBC – 96,000 viewers
HLN – 96,000 viewers
25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 464,000 viewers
CNN – 242,000 viewers
MSNBC – 243,000 viewers
CNBC – 157,000 viewers
HLN – 183,000 viewers
Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 796,000 viewers (285,000)
American Morning – 356,000 viewers (112,000)
Imus in the Morning– 499,000 viewers (175,000)
Robin & Co. – 136,000 viewers (84,000)
6PM - P2+ (25-54)
Special Report with Brit Hume – 1,300,000 viewers (399,000)
Lou Dobbs Tonight – 823,000 viewers (264,000)
Tucker– 299,000 viewers (92,000)
Mad Money – 280,000 viewers (78,000)
Prime News- 176,000 viewers (83,000)
7PM - P2+ (25-54)
FOX Report with Shepard Smith – 1,258,000 viewers (371,000)
Situation Room – 674,000 viewers (272,000)
Hardball – 419,000 viewers (156,000)
On the Money – 177,000 viewers (a scratch with 49,000)
Glenn Beck – 308,000 viewers (149,000)
8PM - P2+ (25-54)
O’Reilly Factor – 2,722,000 viewers (553,000)
Paula Zahn– 546,000 viewers (167,000)
Countdown w/ Olbermann – 762,000 viewers (322,000)
Fast Money – 165,000 viewers (57,000)
Nancy Grace – 524,000 viewers (213,000)
9 PM - P2+ (25-54)
Hannity & Colmes– 1,845,000 viewers (522,000)
Larry King Live – 1,051,000 viewers (240,000)
Scarborough Country- 623,000 viewers (268,000)
Deal or No Deal – 814,000 viewers (297,000)
Glenn Beck – 342,000 viewers (192,000)
10 PM P2+ (25-54)
On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren- 1,295,000 viewers (315,000)
Anderson Cooper- 815,000 viewers (318,000)
MSNBC Special- 319,000 viewers (139,000)
Donny Deutsch – 195,000 viewers (117,000)
Nancy Grace – 240,000 viewers (143,000)
11 PM P2+ (25-54)
The O’Reilly Factor– 1,066,000 viewers (331,000)
Anderson Cooper – 456,000 viewers (215,000)
Crime and Punishment – 385,000 viewers (228,000)
Mad Money– a scratch with 101,000 viewers (a scratch with 49,000)
Showbiz Tonight – 213,000 viewers (124,000)
Cooper beats Greta in the demo! Wow, 112K for the dynamic duo of Obrien&Obrien. Please, flip the switch and give me CNNI!
Comment by Terance — February 2, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
Harry Connick was on Imus one day. It may have been Thursday. Not certain about the day.
Comment by cella — February 2, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
Connick was on Wednesday morning. Great show that day!
Comment by berberry — February 2, 2007 @ 6:37 pm
I’m wondering who was on Scarborough last night. Larry King was doing something on ‘American Idol’, wasn’t he? Maybe that ubiquitous topic is finally burning itself out. Naah, prolly not.
Which still leaves the question: what happened on Scarborough’s show?
Comment by berberry — February 2, 2007 @ 6:40 pm
” How much longer before MSNBC rethinks its weeknight longform strategy now that its live programs are consistently outperforming the canned programming that follows? The Doc Block is now MSNBC’s primetime ratings weak link.”
As far as MSNBC’s “weeknight longform strategy” goes, I believe that, when they started it, someone stated that the canned programming would be profitable with 100,000 less viewers than the live programming. I’m not sure if that’s the exact #, and I don’t know if they were talking about the demo or the total.
In any case, they could just start reruns(instead of live programs) at 10pm and see how that goes for awhile.
Comment by erljr — February 2, 2007 @ 6:43 pm
Why do you people get so worked up over such small numbers in a country of 300 million. Is that the new fighting words,
My demos are better than your demos. Nuts.
Comment by Rob — February 2, 2007 @ 7:12 pm
I think a lot of Anderson Cooper’s success in the demo is because of the time slot. He cover’s more general news than Greta and that’s more what those on the west coast want at 7:00 pm Pacific time. I think I’ve read that that area of the country has a lower demographic age.
Comment by Grampa D — February 2, 2007 @ 7:23 pm
interesting numbers- while i can see where MSNBC is gaining on CNN, i still believe they’re some critical changes they will have to make if they are to take second place from CNN:
1. Get rid of one hour of the doc block, preferable the 10-11 hour- who wants to see prisoners shank and rape each other during primetime.
2. get rid of one hour of Hardball, preferable the earlier hour.I can only take so much of Chris Matthews.
3. Do something with Tucker’s show, the current format is not working- either that or just move him to another time slot or cancel the show and just keep him as an analyst or something.
4. Y’all grpahics need to change- its dull and banal- besides i never really fancied the mix of orange, red and blue- it hurts my eyes
Comment by Sam — February 2, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
Sam, I’d agree with your 1 and 2. Cut the number of prison shows and Dateline predator shows. I’d go even further on 3 and say get rid of Tucker’s show entirely. I think ‘Countdown’ works because it’s counter-programming. MSNBC should do more of that.
Comment by berberry — February 2, 2007 @ 8:52 pm
Who was on Imus yesterday?
Sid Rosenberg; If you don’t know who he is your not an Imus fan.
Comment by elmonica — February 2, 2007 @ 9:04 pm
#4 - Scarborough had his regulars on last night, however he was in an “Olbermann style RANT” against republicans. He really turned it up and with these ratings I am sure he will be doing it again. I like Joe, we are from the same town, that said he has become so fake it is getting harder to listen to him.
Spud — Please help — on Feb. 1 you had “Steve Capus holds Town Hall meeting…” — Capus gave congrats to Joe Scarborough for beating Larry King the day before (Tues.) — TV Newser had Joe with 235,000 demo and Larry with 227,000 demo — Spud had Joe with 134,000 demo and Larry with 210,000 — A blogger ask spud about this as it is a very larger discrepancy even allowing for the different live+ data etc. — I really would like to understand this, Thanks in advance.
Comment by Aunt Mary — February 3, 2007 @ 12:41 am
Sigh…I guess I need to put up a link somewhere on the blog to explain this since people are always asking and I’m having to repeat the story over and over.
TVNewser uses different numbers. My numbers are Live, which is what advertisers use. It’s the industry standard (if there really is such a thing). TVN’s numbers are Live + Same Day. It’s ratings plus DVR ratings. Live + SD is disputed by the advertisers as an accurate measurement because of the problem of commercial skipping. Why should an advertiser pay more for a higher rating when that rating is based on data which at least in part includes commercial skipping? Pay more because people are skipping the ads you’re paying more to put on?
So that’s the discrepency.
Comment by Spud — February 3, 2007 @ 12:51 am
But spud, your reporting the numbers NOT to inform readers of who watched the commercials..but instead of who watched the programs. SO I would think TVN’s numbers would be and are more accurate because it actually adds all the viewers together who viewed the program. I could care less about the commercials. Last time i looked, the name of the blog was Inside Cable News NOT Inside Cable News and its commercials.
Comment by Big Dave — February 3, 2007 @ 2:01 am
Dave, are you suggesting Fox viewers are less likely to turn the channel during commercials?
Comment by elmonica — February 3, 2007 @ 2:07 am
But spud, your reporting the numbers NOT to inform readers of who watched the commercials..but instead of who watched the programs. SO I would think TVN’s numbers would be and are more accurate because it actually adds all the viewers together who viewed the program.
Hey I don’t claim to know what ratings are best or more accurate, but I keep reading about advertisers grumbling about DVR ratings data. And advertisers still use Live, which means regardless of what the networks say about numbers with DVR data they only make money based on Live. So it strikes me as odd that some talk about ratings which they don’t actually use to sell commercial time with. It really doesn’t matter if Live+ SD is more accurate if they can’t use it to charge for commercial time…does it?
Comment by Spud — February 3, 2007 @ 2:25 am
I’m glad you have this set of #s. I’m for keeping them. You could list four #s instead of two, but that may be too confusing. I would be very happy if you got rid of the CNBC #s, or if you listed them separately in a different post, as CNBC is competing for a totally different audience.
When I’ve compared Newser’s #s to yours in the past, the rankings are always the same. Since Aunt Mary pointed out such a big discrepancy, I went and compared last Tuesday and found something funny is going on. Several of the #s are the exact same as yours. Others are very different. Look at Wolf Blitzer at 7pm; Glenn Beck at 9pm; and Greta, MSNBC Investigates, and Nancy Grace at 10pm. In those just mentioned, the #s match exactly. What’s up with this? Is someone playing fast and loose with the #s, or do they not do DVR data for certain shows???
Comment by erljr — February 3, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
Oh, the link:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/the_scoreboard_tuesday_january_30_52232.asp#more
Quick before it changes!
Comment by erljr — February 3, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
For the love of god, PLEASE don’t get rid of the CNBC numbers — TVN got rid of them completely and it would stink if ICN did too.
Comment by Anonymous — February 3, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Yes please keep CNBC numbers:
1. When Fox comes on line with their business channel it will be nice to compare.
2. It is interesting to watch as CNBC fights for ratings by running shows like “Deal or No Deal” that receive great ratings. Why is this interesting? Because it does not seem to take away for Fox ratings at all. When they had it at 8pm it only hurt KO, we can all imagine the closed door rants. Now they have it at 9pm against Joe. Look at the weak show KO is against,”Mad Money” with nothing ratings. I believe if KO was still against “Deal or No Deal” that Joe would have cleaned his clock today.
Comment by Aunt Mary — February 3, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
I agree with @1 AM. But #2? You can’t have it both ways. CNBC can’t affect shows you like, but not affect shows you dislike. Spud doesn’t even list the CNBC ratings that matter: the daytime ones. When Fox Business arrives, it should be listed separately along with CNBC; and the daytime ratings should be listed.
Comment by erljr — February 3, 2007 @ 6:14 pm