The Scoreboard: Tuesday, February 7 (Revealing Cable News Show Stats)

MediaBistro ^ | February 7, 2006 | Brian Stelter:

[PJ-Comix]

25-54 demographic:

Total day: FNC: 295,000 / CNN: 139,000 / MSNBC: 105,000 / HLN: 94,000 / CNBC: 79,000

Primetime: FNC: 507,000 / CNN: 233,000 / MSNBC: 145,000 / HLN: 151,000 / CNBC: 104,000

4pm: Cavuto: 235,000 / Blitzer: 106,000 / MSNBC: 83,000 / Closing Bell: 95,000

5pm: Gibson: 244,000 / Blitzer: 96,000 / Hardball: 197,000 / Kudlow: 69,000

6pm: Hume: 464,000 / Dobbs: 103,000 / Abrams: 152,000 / Mad Money: 127,000

7pm: Shep: 496,000 / Blitzer: 195,000 / Hardball: 158,000 / Showbiz: 94,000 / On The Money: 85,000

8pm: O'Reilly: 589,000 / Zahn: 153,000 / Countdown: 169,000 / Grace: 214,000 / Deal or No Deal: 131,000

9pm: H&C: 538,000 / King: 274,000 / Rita: 128,000 / Prime News: 134,000 / Mad Money repeat: 49,000

10pm: Greta: 396,000 / Cooper: 273,000 / Scarborough: 138,000 / Grace repeat: 106,000 / Big Idea: 132,000

11pm: O'Reilly: 323,000 / Cooper: 171,000 / Situation: 113,000 / Showbiz repeat: 79,000 / Deal or No Deal repeat: 114,000

Total viewers:

Total day: FNC: 918,000 / CNN: 470,000 / MSNBC: 281,000 / HLN: 226,000 / CNBC: 204,000

Primetime: FNC: 1,852,000 / CNN: 767,000 / MSNBC: 359,000 / HLN: 455,000 / CNBC: 172,000

4pm: Cavuto: 965,000 / Blitzer: 573,000 / MSNBC: 291,000

5pm: Gibson: 1,023,000 / Blitzer: 505,000 / Hardball: 425,000

6pm: Hume: 1,524,000 / Dobbs: 533,000 / Abrams: 358,000

7pm: Shep: 1,642,000 / Blitzer: 757,000 / Hardball: 412,000 / Showbiz: 179,000

8pm: O'Reilly: 2,541,000 / Zahn: 612,000 / Countdown: 441,000 / Grace: 645,000

9pm: H&C: 1,736,000 / King: 899,000 / Rita: 332,000 / Prime News: 384,000

10pm: Greta: 1,279,000 / Cooper: 790,000 / Scarborough: 302,000 / Grace repeat: 336,000

11pm: O'Reilly repeat: 1,067,000 / Cooper: 468,000 / Situation: 229,000 / Showbiz repeat: 164,000

[PJ-Comix]

I thought these stats revealing the viewership of the cable news/talk shows would be very revealing in showing what most people prefer. Notice a pattern here?

[PeteB570]

To me it says that FNC beats the next best show by about 2 - 1 in every time slot.

[saveliberty]

Sorry to be a tad slow minded, I am not understanding the prime time number as it's less than any combination of hours in the 8-10. It doesn't even agree with the 5-7.

Can you please clear this up?

Thank you :-)

sl

[Huck]

It's like a three party race. The lib viewership is split between CNN and MSNBC, while Fox scarfs up all the regular American viewers. Considering so many ppl think of CNN as the default news station (the same way Q tip is the default cotton swab), their numbers are all the more pitiful. It is weird though that the difference would only fill up two or three football stadiums. That doesn't seem like a huge difference in a country of 300 million, but proportionally I guess it's a big deal.

[saveliberty]

If you add up all the non-FNC for all day, all viewers, the libs beat FNC (note that this doesn't include the old networks). But if you do the same during primetime for all viewers, FNC wins.

[PJ-Comix]

Can you please clear this up?

No.

[PJ-Comix]

A lot of those TVs are just generically tuned to CNN in public places during the daytime hours.

[saveliberty]

Well thanks for answering. :-)

[saveliberty]

Okay, that helps. Thanks :-)

[elli1]

Sorry to be a tad slow minded, I am not understanding the prime time number as it's less than any combination of hours in the 8-10. It doesn't even agree with the 5-7.

Primetime number is an average of the viewers in the 8, 9 & 10 O'clock hours. Add those numbers & divide by 3.

[Laverne]

In the demographic group provided, I find it interesting that MSNBC is now beating CNN in three shows. Is CNN slipping to third place?

[Miss Marple]

Interesting drop off in Fox viewers when Greta comes on. I wonder if the drop was as bad before she took that time slot.

[saveliberty]

It's a per hour average! Thank you, elli1!

[saveliberty]

Hard to tell as PJ-Comix pointed out that CNN plays in public places.

Although I have been in airports in which FNC was playing. In fact, now that I think of it, FNC was on (only one occasion that I can recall) in Boston's Logan airport.

[saveliberty]

Good morning, Miss Marple :-) Wasn't that Paula Zahn in that time slot before? I forget a lot these days.

[PJ-Comix]

Interesting drop off in Fox viewers when Greta comes on.

I drop out of Fox when Greta comes on unless I'm unusually interested in Aruba news.

[PJ-Comix]

Hey, I gave you an honest answer.

[johnny7]

Holy shiite... Hume KO's Dobbs 3-1.

[Steve Van Doorn]

Greta push’s heart felt stuff, that is a liberal need. It usually puts conservatives to sleep.

[newnhdad]

I can't stand Greta. She rides a story to death then rides it some more. Her show tries to make every crime into OJ or the Lindberg baby. She's not very entertaining and she's a letdown after the charged H&C hour.