Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for September 23 2008
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,374,000 viewers
CNN –776,000 viewers
MSNBC – 521,000 viewers
CNBC – 296,000 viewers
HLN – 359,000 viewers
P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,951,000 viewers
CNN –1,461,000 viewers
MSNBC-1,209,000 viewers
CNBC –a scratch w/123,000 viewers
HLN – 805,000 viewers
25-54 Total Day
FNC – 337,000 viewers
CNN –258,000 viewers
MSNBC – 173,000 viewers
CNBC –84,000 viewers
HLN- 170,000 viewers
25-54 Prime Time
FNC –667,000 viewers
CNN – 581,000 viewers
MSNBC – 426,000 viewers
CNBC – 61,000 viewers
HLN – 309,000 viewers
35-64 Total Day
FNC –628,000 viewers
CNN – 383,000 viewers
MSNBC – 279,000 viewers
CNBC – 160,000 viewers
HLN – 220,000 viewers
35-64 Prime Time
FNC – 1,214,000 viewers
CNN –730,000 viewers
MSNBC –668,000 viewers
CNBC –67,000 viewers
HLN –442,000 viewers
Morning programs (6:00AM-9:00AM) P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
FOX & Friends –995,000 viewers (311,000) (591,000)
American Morning-494,000 viewers (192,000) (292,000)
Morning Joe- 390,000 viewers (115,000) (223,000)
Squawk Box- 305,000 viewers (93,000) (199,000)
Morning Express w/ Meade- 352,000 viewers (202,000) (241,000)
6PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Special Report with Brit Hume – 2,097,000 viewers (407,000) (869,000)
Situation Room- 971,000 viewers (284,000) (423,000)
Race/White House w/d Gregory- 669,000 viewers (221,000) (355,000)
Mad Money–395,000 viewers (155,000) (211,000)
Prime News- 342,000 viewers (198,000) (212,000)
7PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Fox Report w/ Shepard Smith – 2,064,000 viewers (517,000) (1,004,000)
Lou Dobbs–1,107,000 viewers (364,000) (546,000)
Hardball w/Chris Matthews—1,013,000 viewers (336,000) (508,000)
Is Your Money Safe—327,000 viewers (122,000) (196,000)
Glenn Beck – 578,000 viewers (275,000) (368,000)
8PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O’Reilly Factor- 3,580,000 viewers (768,000) (1,392,000)
Election Center—1,365,000 viewers (523,000) (665,000)
Countdown w/Keith Olbermann– 1,350,000 viewers (449,000) (771,000)
On the Money—190,000 viewers (78,000) (110,000)
Nancy Grace –1,145,000 viewers (438,000) (642,000)
9 PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Hannity & Colmes–2,812,000 viewers (682,000) (1,175,000)
Larry King—1,412,000 viewers (535,000) (690,000)
Rachel Maddow Show–1,366,000 viewers (465,000) (707,000)
Business of Innovation—a scratch w/111,000 viewers (73,000) (55,000)
Glenn Beck- 621,000 viewers (228,000) (358,000)
10 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
On the Record w/Greta—2,461,000 viewers (550,000) (1,074,000)
Anderson Cooper 360–1,607,000 viewers (684,000) (834,000)
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann–910,000 viewers (364,000) (526,000)
Big Idea w/Donny Deutsch—a scratch w/67,000 viewers (a scratch w/31,000) (a scratch w/37,000)
Nancy Grace –701,000 viewers (283,000) (351,000)
11 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O’Reilly Factor--1,748,000 viewers (527,000) (953,000)
Anderson Cooper 360—924,000 viewers (306,000) (453,000)
Rachel Maddow Show–582,000 viewers (215,000) (351,000)
Mad Money—165,000 viewers (77,000) (120,000)
Showbiz Tonight– 479,000 viewers (189,000) (231,000)
P2+ = viewers over the age of 2
(25-54) = Adults 25-54 viewing
(35-64) = Adults 35-64 viewing
Prime Time = 8-11pm
LIVE+SD: The number that watched a program either while it was broadcast OR watched via DVR on the same day [through 3AM the next day] the program was broadcast. For more information see Numbers 101.
Scratch = when a show's audience fails to meet minimum Nielsen reporting levels. For more information go here.
Nielsen Cable Network Coverage Estimates (as of March, 2008)
CNN/HLN: 96.93 million HHs
CNBC: 95.13 million HHs
FNC: 94.55 million HHs
MSNBC: 91.59 million HHs
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Wow BOR seems to be getting monster ratings for the past 3 weeks ever since the conventions!
Hes averaging over 3 and a half million every day!
Just about everyone is up over regular viewership right now. Its the election. It will drop back down towards lower levels. If it hits previous levels or stays above them is an open question.
Even before the election, most shows, especially the screamers on FNC and MSNBC, were slowly clawing their way up the numbers. But you could chalk that up to the primary. check back once our new president gets settled and everything will be lower again
Merrill’s comment is disingenuous.
The O’Reilly Factor by those on the left can never be allowed to WIN just because it is better, or God forbid because more people are choosing to watch it over Olbermann.
It can only win if there is some other reason that lifts all shows up in ratings.
But if O’Reilly goes down they throw out that same argument.
When O’Reilly got beat a while back by Olbermann in one demographic the left erupted; whoaaaaaa—(this is evidence of the new direction) and on and on.
We were lectured by the incessant gloating of those on the left about how this was a sign of how America was rejecting O’Reilly in favor of Olbermann or Maddow over CNN and Fox is next, etc.
Where were the comments from the left saying oh it has nothing to do with Olbermann or Maddow…viewership is up overall.
In truth MSNBC’s and FOX and CNN’s ratings have gone up during the election as people are tuning in to cable a lot more. BUT if you factor in to the numbers the rise in viewership overall —and then compute the disproportional rise in Fox News’s ratings— then the math clearly shows that Fox is trouncing MSNBC.
Why can’t the left just admit this?
I read comment the other day saying MSNBC was only getting clobbered as they were on “higher channel numbers” or not as many people have MSNBC available. Do they not think Nielson factors in who does and does not have the option of watching competitors who they are monitoring?
The rise in Fox’s ratings are greatly disproportional to their competitors even during this time. If the ratings for FOX were only high due to the election then they should not be one bit higher proportionally over MSNBC than they were prior to the election, when by the way they were also clobbering MSNBC. Think about it.
Looks like people are leaving the maddow show for Larry King & Alan Colmes. That’s not surprising people will get tired of listening to the same drone day in and day out without any diversity of opinion.
My Fox Babes!
They are doing it again. A man doesn’t want to watch Keith O or a lesbian when he can watch hot blondes (brunettes too) that are attractive and can give the news. Short skirts are always welcome on my TV.
cattleman, while I will admit to being a liberal, I usually don’t celebrate and cheer when, once in a blue moon, Olbermann beats O’Reilly. I know that numbers for this stuff are constantly in flux. And I am right, everyone, including Bill is up for the election. I admitted in my post that the election is part of the reason ‘screamers’ (Olbermann included) is up. And yes, FNC continues to clobber everyone else across the board and likely will for the foreseeable future.
Bri – again, numbers pretty constantly in flux across the board. Yes, most liberals celebrated when Maddow beat Larry King. Now they look foolish. However, Maddow does have some diversity of opinion on the show.(not a lot, but more than Olbermann). One of her segments is called ‘talk me down’ where she talks about why, as a progressive, she is worried about something and has someone, generally from the other side, try to calm her down. Oh and the ‘Its Pat!’ segment is clearly an opposing view. Unless Mr. Buchanan has decided to go lefty.
And snowball, thank you for pointing out, once again, the wonders of the country. I believe the Daily Show called it ‘News I’d like to F–k’ Personally, I’d rather get some REAL news on cable. (Which, btw, only 1 of the 5 networks we watch here really does. And even then, its not at good as it could be. I’m talking about CNBC)
my once again isn’t directed directly at snowball, its just not the first time i’ve seen comments like that. Question: If America likes news babes so much, Why are there only 3 in prime time? Rachel, Campbell and Greta. (I’m NOT going to count Nancy in with them. I had a hard enough time including Greta)
Merrill,
My objection was to your slanted implication in your original comment.
You clearly indicated that the simple explanation for O’Reilly’s elevated numbers were due to nothing more than the rising tide of viewership due to the election cycle.
I never disputed that the numbers are up over-all.
My point was the subtlety with which you dismissed the disproportional margins by which O’Reilly is ahead. It would have lead someone to say “oh he is only ahead as more people are watching over-all.” And that is exactly the impression your comment was meant to make.
Statistically or mathematically speaking that was not anywhere near to being accurate. Your comment is an echo of what is wrong with the mentality at MSNBC.
My comments on the “Left” were directed to the multitude of easily Goggled commentaries and reviews that flooded the Net whenever Olbermann won in a timeslot demographic against O’Reilly.
All of a sudden the arguments such as yours that are routinely used to explain away the trouncing Fox doles out to MSNBC were out of the window.
Now, laughably the same crowd was saying that MSNBC had competitively and uniquely beat the hell out of Fox and the Neilson numbers proved it.
Then as soon as it appeared that it was just a momentary mirage, the same crowd returned to the “O’Reilly is not really beating Olbermann, just more people are watching over-all argument.”
AS for Maddow…I am going to just be blunt. This is a center-right country politically. Zogby and Scott Rasmussen confirm that over and over again. Read Zogby’s comments on his site as of today.
R. Maddow is a lesbian. She does not qualify in many peoples book as a “babe” but looks like a butch lesbian. Some people may love that and some may hate it.
But MSNBC is saying this…If America is choosing O’Reilly over Olbermann and we just had to fire Olbermann and Matthews as anchors on election night due to uproar over their bias…then…our response to boost our line-up is going to be to put a far-left, patronizing lesbian who even looks the part in your face America.
Initially there was curiosity and now people are seeing she is a lefty-lesbian and maybe the only person at MSNBC who can match Olbermann in the condescending personality category.
I say again if MSNBC really wanted to FREAK out FOX and give O’Reilly a run for his money they would find a true conservative/Independent and have journalist who actually can say something other than, “I completely agree with you Keith” before every other comment.
I’ve trolled the cable channels looking for hot babes to give me the news and always come back to Fox.
Even their business channel has hot babes talking finance.
Greta is not hot, but some of her guests are hot.