A week of Haiti earthquake coverage boosted Fox News into the #2 position for average primetime viewership, behind the typical "non-sports" leader USA. CNN got a boost as well, moving up to #16. Rounding out the cable news competition, Headline News was #38 and MSNBC was #40 for the week. USA, lead by WWE Raw and NCIS repeats, kept its grip on the top spot for the adults 18-49 demo in primetime.
Nickelodeon remains, as nearly always, on the top of the total day average viewership.
Prime-time Average Viewers (Live+SD) Week of January 11-17, 2010
| Network | (000s) |
| USA | 2,623 |
| FOXN | 2,412 |
| DSNY | 2,360 |
| NAN | 2,050 |
| TNT | 2,030 |
| FAM | 1,676 |
| A&E | 1,641 |
| TBSC | 1,571 |
| FX | 1,423 |
| ESPN | 1,286 |
| TRU | 1,284 |
| TOON | 1,280 |
| DISC | 1,233 |
| HGTV | 1,194 |
| HIST | 1,142 |
| CNN | 1,130 |
| LIFE | 1,113 |
| AMC | 1,097 |
| FOOD | 1,084 |
| SYFY | 1,016 |
| SPK | 1,001 |
| HALL | 981 |
| MTV | 952 |
| TLC | 925 |
| NKJR | 791 |
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Adults 18-49 Primetime Average (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| USA | 1138 |
| TNT | 906 |
| TBSC | 904 |
| FX | 813 |
| A&E | 797 |
| DISC | 651 |
| TRU | 650 |
| FAM | 645 |
| MTV | 615 |
| ESPN | 590 |
| HIST | 572 |
| SPK | 567 |
| LIFE | 549 |
| FOOD | 535 |
| NAN | 523 |
| DSNY | 522 |
| SYFY | 480 |
| CMDY | 479 |
| VH1 | 460 |
| AMC | 442 |
| HGTV | 436 |
| TLC | 427 |
| FOXN | 398 |
| BRAV | 391 |
| EN | 353 |
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Total Day Average Viewers (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| NICK | 2,151 |
| NAN | 1,739 |
| DSNY | 1,531 |
| USA | 1,392 |
| FOXN | 1,330 |
| TNT | 1,279 |
| ADSM | 1,122 |
| TOON | 1,009 |
| A&E | 928 |
| TBSC | 854 |
| ESPN | 810 |
| TRU | 801 |
| CNN | 789 |
| FAM | 768 |
| LIFE | 763 |
| DISC | 709 |
| FX | 707 |
| HIST | 699 |
| FOOD | 697 |
| HGTV | 679 |
| SPK | 647 |
| MTV | 630 |
| NKJR | 571 |
| AMC | 561 |
| HALL | 544 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Very sad picture
people love tragedy
MSNBC – is lame – that’s why their number 40! Fire Olbermann and watch ratings go up! FoX rules!!!!
I never realized just how poorly CNN does in the TV ratings. Even during a disaster, which seems to be their calling card for success, they have had little. Larry King does not pull in even average numbers so why do they keep him? He can’t be cheap. Any other network would fire him (okay maybe not NBC). And Randy Andy loses viewers right after in his time slot.
The % increases for CNN over FOX are telling.
Interesting about FOX because they hardly covered the earthquake. Maybe people watched them because of that. Earthquake was too depressing.
It’s very telling that Fox does well overall but look at how they drop in the 18-49 demo group.
Younger people aren’t much into watching the cable news channels. Don’t expect to ever find CNN, HLN and MSNBC in the top-25 A18-49 rankings.
Fox News’ gains from covering the earthquake extensively in the first week weren’t as impressive percentage-wise as CNN’s. The heroic act by Anderson Cooper seems to have paid considerable ratings dividends over the weekend. An act of heroism is the sort of thing I always expect to see from AC.
Wow you must have missed something big about Fox News…and it wasn’t their coverage of Haiti.
You forget about the Sarah Palin debut? Also the Massachusetts Senate race? Those were much more of a factor then Haiti.
Sucks that FOX News never showed Hope For Haiti. I guess the don’t give a damn about tragedy, unless it’s on American soil. The whole channel has been anti-Haiti recently.
What else would you expect from Fox Noise? They kept harping on politics, which is what their loyal followers want to see, instead of the Haiti coverage. Just be honest in admitting who the vast majority of their viewers are…and it’s easy to see why they didn’t care about Haiti.