Wednesday’s Numbers…
Cable News Daily Ratings for September 5, 2007
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 998,000 viewers
CNN – 541,000 viewers
MSNBC – 296,000 viewers
CNBC – 188,000 viewers
HLN – 229,000 viewers
P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,822,000 viewers
CNN – 979,000 viewers
MSNBC – 583,000 viewers
CNBC – 143,000 viewers
HLN – 434,000 viewers
25-54 Total Day
FNC – 260,000 viewers
CNN – 162,000 viewers
MSNBC – 111,000 viewers
CNBC – 52,000 viewers
HLN – 87,000 viewers
25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 698,000 viewers
CNN – 240,000 viewers
MSNBC – 276,000 viewers
CNBC –54,000 viewers
HLN – 139,000 viewers
Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 790,000 viewers (283,000)
American Morning – 346,000 viewers (115,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9am) – 260,000 viewers (72,000)
Robin & Co. – 206,000 viewers (89,000)
6PM - P2+ (25-54)
Special Report with Brit Hume – 1,286,000 viewers (218,000)
Lou Dobbs- 1,010,000 viewers (284,000)
Tucker– 252,000 viewers (70,000)
Mad Money – 171,000 viewers (a scratch with 28,000)
Prime News w/ Erica Hill- 187,000 viewers (84,000)
7PM - P2+ (25-54)
FOX Report with Shepard Smith – 1,207,000 viewers (290,000)
Situation Room – 653,000 viewers (157,000)
Hardball– 429,000 viewers (141,000)
On the Money – 147,000 viewers (a scratch with 34,000)
Glenn Beck –264,000 viewers (64,000)
8PM - P2+ (25-54)
O’Reilly Factor- 2,361,000 viewers (429,000)
Out in the Open – 547,000 viewers (123,000)
Countdown w/ Olbermann – 763,000 viewers (310,000)
Fast Money –159,000 viewers (a scratch with 47,000)
Nancy Grace – 625,000 viewers (171,000)
9 PM - P2+ (25-54)
NH Republican Pres Debate (9-10:39 PM)– 3,141,000 viewers (854,000)
Larry King Live – 1,447,000 viewers (325,000)
Live W/ Dan Abrams- 410,000 viewers (188,000)
Big Mac: Inside McDonalds- 126,000 viewers (a scratch with 49,000)
Glenn Beck – 319,000 viewers (96,000)
10 PM P2+ (25-54)
Hannity & Colmes (10:39-11 PM)- 2,636,000 viewers (728,000)
Anderson Cooper- 943,000 viewers (273,000)
MSNBC Special- 575,000 viewers (331,000)
Donny Deutsch –145,000 viewers (65,000)
Nancy Grace – 358,000 viewers (149,000)
11 PM P2+ (25-54)
Hannity & Colmes– 1,480,000 viewers (448,000)
Anderson Cooper – 549,000 viewers (194,000)
MSNBC Investigates– 583,000 viewers (315,000)
Mad Money–136,000 viewers (77,000)
Showbiz Tonight – 261,000 viewers (115,000)
As much as I hate to say it, Countdown’s numbers have been quite impressive as of late…would be interesting to see if he eventually ends up beating BOR. Maybe this will persuade NBC to give him a few more hours on the main network to goose his ratings even more.
Comment by Anonymous — September 6, 2007 @ 7:47 pm
1. He will never beat BOR.
Comment by Tom P — September 6, 2007 @ 7:54 pm
“Countdown’s numbers have been quite impressive as of late”
Well O’Reilly was off for a week and KO couldn’t even beat his stand-ins..that’s not very impressive,,but this is the same story we’ve heard from KO fans and MSNBC for over 3 years now about how KO is narrowing the gap and he’ll beat O’Reilly soon..I have a bet 3 years from now when looking at the ratings we’ll again hear somebody say …”Countdown’s numbers have been quite impressive as of late…would be interesting to see if he eventually ends up beating BOR”. :)
Comment by mlong — September 6, 2007 @ 7:58 pm
Oh trust me #3…I am NOT a fan of him at ALL!! But his demo figures have been creeping up since his NBC airing, that’s all.
Comment by Anonymous — September 6, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
Not gonna happen, Anon, and I watch KO’s show.
Comment by Goldfish — September 6, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
The only way KO will ever win his timeslot is when the whole FOX news channel goes off the air and even with the Dems threats of “fairness doctrines”(which for the moment would’t apply to FOX) and boycotts I don’t see that happening..
As I said in another post…once Bush is gone over 1/2 of KO shtick is gone…because Bush bashing makes up most of Countdown and that’ll hurt KO because all he’ll have then is O’Reilly and FOX bashing and once again as I said if a Dem wins ‘08 nobodys going to watch an hour of KO a**kissing Hillary.
Comment by mlong — September 6, 2007 @ 8:21 pm
Just a question. Why are Inside Cable News rating numbers lower than Media Bistro TVNewser?
Comment by lonnette33 — September 6, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
Last Thursday Countdown did beat the Factor in the demo. See:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/the_scoreboard_thursday_august_30__66277.asp
O’Reilly was not on that night, and this is the demo. But it wasn’t too long ago that it was unthinkable that this would ever happen, even in the demo, even when the Factor has a guest host. Also, it wasn’t just the O’Reilly-less Factor that Countdown beat. It was every single CNN primetime show. And the FNC shows — except for one. Look at the numbers. Countdown beat every primetime cable news show on all the cable networks, except for Hume’s Special Report, which had an unusually strong night.
Comment by Gramps — September 6, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
Just a question. Why are Inside Cable News rating numbers lower than Media Bistro TVNewser?
Different set of numbers. Those numbers include DVR data. Mine do not.
Comment by Spud — September 6, 2007 @ 9:02 pm
What are Olbs Thursday numbers w/out DVR data? I thought I saw somewhere that those numbers bump him 15-30% per night and that is why his viewership seems to be on the rise
Comment by Butthead — September 6, 2007 @ 9:48 pm
#7, maybe because Spud isn’t related to anyone employed at MSNBC (to my knowledge, anyway).
Comment by Missy — September 6, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
#2 never say never, people that are ontop always end up getting kicked down, not saying it will happen to bor anytime soon but just watch and see..
Comment by don — September 6, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
#7, TVNewser uses ratings that include viewing on tape-delay, such as via Tivo. Note the ‘LS’ designation, apparently meaning “live + same-day”. Those ratings are heavily promoted by the Nielson company and may more accurately represent the total number of people who watch a particular show, but advertisers are usually more interested in the raw numbers, which are posted on this blog.
You know, it doesn’t seem so long ago that people were saying BOR would never beat CNN. I’m just sayin’…
Comment by berberry — September 6, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
I can see why not including DVR numbers would matter to advertisers, but for simply comparing the two in the ratings battle I think the DVR numbers are note worthy. Including both would be ideal.
And Mlong, put the koolaid down kid, or you being a fox viewer I should say grandpa :)
Just 2 years ago Keith wasn’t even averaging 300k of total viewers let alone in the demo! Whether you like it or not he has shown numerous growth over the years where BOR use to average around 3 million didn’t he?
Comment by BOB — September 6, 2007 @ 10:44 pm
berberry-
The ratings you say are “heavily promoted by the Nielson company” are the Live+3 days of DVR playback. I assume TVNewser doesn’t use them because MSNBC does better with only one day of DVR playback.
Comment by erljr — September 6, 2007 @ 11:25 pm
Wednesday was a “Special Comment” night that was heavily coordinated with Huffpo and Kos.Oh, and Gramps, nice to see you are using a KO-friendly site like TVN, that inflates numbers tomake Keith look good.
Comment by eddiebear — September 6, 2007 @ 11:29 pm
I don’t know if TVNewser has some special attachment to MSNBC, but any way you look at it MSNBC and particularly ‘Countdown’ are doing quite well lately. Like I alluded to earlier, it wasn’t so long ago that O’Reilly’s ratings were comparably low but rising against CNN.
And it was only a couple years ago that O’Reilly himself was promoting his own demo numbers. Tonight he was promoting his overall numbers to show how dominate he still is. I think he’s nervous as hell about losing his younger viewers even as his older viewers are, perhaps more slowly, leaving him due to natural causes.
Comment by berberry — September 6, 2007 @ 11:43 pm
The argument that older viewers are dying off has always been a flawed one. But you are right about Olbermann’s success in the demo. It wasn’t long ago that he rarely topped 200,000 in the demo. Now he occasionally tops 300,000 and rarely goes below 200,000.
Comment by erljr — September 7, 2007 @ 12:09 am
Like I said 3 years from now KO fans will still be bragging about KO catching up to O’Reilly and telling how it’ll be just a matter of time before he beats him. :)
Comment by mlong — September 7, 2007 @ 3:34 am
I can see why not including DVR numbers would matter to advertisers, but for simply comparing the two in the ratings battle I think the DVR numbers are note worthy. Including both would be ideal.
Comment by BOB — September 6, 2007 @ 10:44 pm
But here’s the thing. If you include DVR numbers, because you want to see the “whole picture” because we’re not advertisers… then “the demo” is also rendered useless. The only reason we have a “demo” is because of the advertisers… so if it doesn’t matter what ratings the advertisers use, should that apply across the board?
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 7, 2007 @ 11:27 am
For once I agree with you, INB. But then I’d also say that we, as non-advertisers, should just ignore all the ratings crap, find a show we like and watch it.
But then, just for the hell of it, let’s nitpick the whole concept further: I’ve read where advertisers have commissioned studies into the way people forward through commercials (the speed at which they do so, etc.) in an effort to get at least their brand logo on the screen long enough that it can be recognized while whizzing by. One thing they noticed is that, although the commercial itself is being ignored, viewers’ eyes are focused on the screen.
Since I’m not an advertiser I don’t really know whether that’s true. But if it is, then it would seem that advertisers, irrespective of their protestations to the contrary, are in fact paying attention to DVR viewing.
Comment by berberry — September 7, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
BOR factor has been the #1 show in cable for some time and I think it will be the same for few more years. But love him or hate him KO has a way of giving news that no other can and his popularity is not something you can ignore. These days he is everywhere and I’m sure BOR is not enjoying it.
Comment by John — September 7, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
I have been amused at the promotion of the idea that 25-54 live plus same day view is the number to look at regarding political shows.
If you want to look at likely voters, you have to include 54+, since that group votes in disproportionately large numbers.
If you want to look at the group advertisers crave, I can understand 25-54, but do advertisers really get excited about inclusion of viewers who fast-forward through the ads? That makes no sense to me.
Comment by Missouri Show Me — September 7, 2007 @ 1:20 pm
I think NBC would be smart to sprinkle a few more “Countdowns” throughout the NFL season. Even with only 4 million viewers that night, Countdown is obviously receiving a bit a bump from the network exposure. (Check out the NBC sports blog, nearly 11,000 views for the Olbermann topic.
Also, CNNs’ mishandling of the former Zahn time slot also has to help Countdown’s ratings. That CNN guy is pretty bad, I keep thinking he’s a parody from the Daily Show.
Comment by Obama in 08! — September 7, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
CNN has got to do something to stop the hemmoraging of viewers but I don’t think Campbell Brown (their scheduled permanent host for that slot) will be the answer for them AT all. I think she’ll meet the same fate as Connie Chung & Paula Zahn in that slot. They need to move Lou Dobbs into that time slot or Larry King back and hour.
Comment by Alison — September 7, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
Cnn’s morning could use some help too. I say move John Roberts to primetime, maybe co-anchoring with Campbell Brown. Bring back Rick Sanchez or Rob Marciano to co-host with Kiran. The ratings were good when Roberts was on vacation, and now that he’s back, it seems they’ve fallen back down. Chetry has surprised many with her performance on AM. She’s done very well. Chetry’s agent was called incompetent, a bumbler. Not so fast. I say he’s a genius.
Comment by california dreamin — September 7, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
Even with only 4 million viewers that night, Countdown is obviously receiving a bit a bump from the network exposure. (Check out the NBC sports blog, nearly 11,000 views for the Olbermann topic.
Comment by Obama in 08! — September 7, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
But how many of them left positive comments?
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 7, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Why is BOR always saying that MSNBC ratings is down the toilet especially during the 8pm time slot, which is not true. KO ratings has been impressive so far, and has always shown growth in audience. Could it be that BOR is worried that KO is going to catchup with him in the ratings? He sounded really angry about MSNBC ratings last night.
Comment by chi — September 7, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
I am wondering why there has been no coverage to speak of on the arrest of the 11 New Jersey mayors and assemblymen and preachers. Seems it would be new worth reporting on, and a lot more relevant that the old picture of Osama being played up.
Also interesting is the Reverand Assemblyman Alfred E. Steele’s calling for the immediate resignation or Don Imus on April 11, 2007. I’m surprised he had the time to make any statement concerning Imus, being so busy taking bribes and such. But then wouldn’t it be ironic if money changed hands…..say no more.
Comment by Anne B — September 7, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
But how many of them left positive comments?
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 7, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Yes, ImNotBlue, just about all of them are against Olbermann, but still, 10,800+ views…I just have to think that NBC is taking notice. Although, having to retract what he said about Vick on the very next show is not so good. (Remember, his Michael Vick special comment was pulled off youTube). The advertisers will make the ultimate decision, if there is enough complaints to them, Olbermann won’t last too long on Football Night.
Comment by Obama in 08! — September 7, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
As for Countdown’s numbers increase, Jon Stewart and Colbert have been on vacation the last 2 weeks. I wonder if any of their viewers for the 8 PM/8:30PM repeats have tuned in KO for awhile. However, I do believe he gained some viewers from his NFL coverage.
Comment by Char — September 7, 2007 @ 7:52 pm