Sarah Palin Crushes Oprah Winfrey in Head to Head Cable Ratings Monday Night

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

Sarah Palin crushed Oprah Winfrey last night when the two went head to head at 9 p.m. EST on the Fox News Channel and CNN.

Palin appeared on Fox's Hannity to give her first interview in the wake of media attacks on her over the Arizona massacre while Winfrey was the prize guest on the debut of Piers Morgan Tonight, CNN's successor to the Larry King Show.

The New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, New York Magazine and Broadcasting & Cable each gave Piers Morgan the headlines for their articles about the ratings battle, even though his show placed a decisive second. Palin's triumph is mentioned but played down.

The numbers according to Broadcasting & Cable:

Hannity: 2.4 million, 600,000 in 25-54demo.

Morgan: 2.1 million, 521,000 in 25-54 demo.

Rachel Maddow on MSNBC: 1.1 million, 342,000 in 25-54 demo.

Palin's audience was nearly 15 percent larger than those who tuned in to watch Oprah.

[kristinn]

L.A. Times headline:

Sarah Palin Upstages Piers Morgan's CNN Premier With Oprah Winfrey.

[albie]

Oprah who?.. Isn’t that some black chick?..

...yeah that’s her. A little tubbly. Gives away Pontiacs.

[kristinn]

So when is he having John Kerry on his show?

[Gator113]

Oh no. Doesn’t this make Palin a racist?

The very day that Palin announces, she is going to suck the air out of the world of politics.

Palin 2012.....

[albie]

Employees at “O” magazine love working there! No stress on who to put on the cover month to month.

[Carley]

So ole Piers is a cohort of the war slut Amanpour.

[GoCards]

Rachel Maddow has 1.1 million. Geez that is DISTURBING

[albie]

“Rachel Maddow on MSNBC: 1.1 million, 342,000 in 25-54 demo”.

...there’s good ‘ole Rachel. Bringing up the carpet, err uh rear, er umm...

[rob777]

"Last night they did. 2.1 million is 8 TIMES Larry King's average nightly audience for 2010. "


Does anybody know how the 2.4 million compares to Hannity's average 2010 audience? The headline makes it look like a Sarah vs. Oprah clash and ignores the Fox vs. CNN factor.

[Islander7]

Yeah, she’s the one that also sat in Rev Wright’s church for a whole bunch of years and didn’t hear any racist stuff coming out of his mouth

Nope, she's the one who heard what was being said and stopped attending. (I sure she knew it would be bad for ratings) 0bama OTH, continued to attend.

[GoCards]

Piers has Howard Stern on tonite, I think.

[FrankR]

You mean Oprah Obama?

[K-Stater]

A 300,000 viewer difference isn’t crushing CNN. If memory serves an average Hannity show beat Larry King by a larger margin than that most days.

[exist]

sarah palin is awesome.

[kristinn]

We’re talking Oprah, not CNN.

[K-Stater]

Does anybody know how the 2.4 million compares to Hannity's average 2010 audience?

Apparently it was up a bit. Link

[GoCards]

Larry had Maddow numbers. CNN improved alot with this new show.

[K-Stater]

We’re talking Oprah, not CNN.

Oprah was on CNN.

[who knows what evil?]

Does anybody know how the 2.4 million compares to Hannity's average 2010 audience?

Slight bump up...my fault, as I usually don't watch Hannity, but tuned in for Sarah. Won't happen tonight...

[JaguarXKE]

Good thing for Oprah that Harpo was her parent’s favorite Marx Brother. Otherwise, her name might have been Ohcuorg, which just doesn’t roll off the toounge as well. I’m just sayin’.