Last Weeks Ratings At A Glance

SEX AND SOME POLITICS CAN MAKE FOR SOME HOT NIGHTS…
March 10-14, 2008


Courtesy: Google Images

I’ve been saving this graphic until we have gotten past the big primaries (no slight to PA or other states here, but they are a fair amount of time away). This shows the ELECTORAL VOTE count per state, why some of the big states and why Florida and Michigan can make a difference. Losing those two state’s electoral votes is like losing NY and Maryland – ouch!

Last week we had one primary (Mississippi) and one sex scandal (NY) that resulted in almost three days of solid coverage. The interest in both topics helped raise cable in audience delivery once again.

8PM:^
Fox News: 540,000*
CNN: 345,000
MSNBC: 348,000

Yes, Election Center almost pulled into 2nd place, but it is actually within the Nielsen statistical error range, so it’s a tie for 2nd for me. And, what is very encouraging is that ELECTION CENTER is up 22% over last week’s average with a good, but not great, primary night in that average. Bill O’Reilly and COUNTDOWN are both down slightly from their week’s prior performance – so that is good news for CNN. Tuesday, primary night, the 8PM hour on CNN was the #1 program in the time period while COUNTDOWN was a distant second and Billo was third.

Courtesy: Google Images

9PM:^
Fox News: 530,000
CNN: 387,000*
MSNBC: 195,000

The only surprise here is the strength of HANNITY & COLMES on Friday night with the first of the Senator Obama interviews. The audience figure was 708,000 – well above the 530,000 week average, and ‘way above their Primary night average. CNN once again took the time period on Tuesday night for the Mississippi coverage. That number, not being a LKL performance was not average in the weekly average, however. CNN also beat MSNBC so with the combination of the pending resignation of the NY Governor and Primary coverage, audiences tuned to CNN. LKL is up over his prior week average.

Courtesy: CNN

10PM:^
Fox News: 471,000*
CNN: 458,000
MSNBC: 235,000**

Nope, no win for AC360 this week, and it was a combination of factors. The program had a very strong Monday with the NY Governor’s story breaking late that day and the bulk of the coverage was available after network news broadcasts. Monday, 360 was the #1 program in the time period and the #3 program for the entire primetime block – 8PM-11PM. Tuesday with the Primary coverage and pending resignation by the governor, 360 was again #1 in the time period. And once again, it was the #3 program in all of primetime – 8PM-11PM that night. Wednesday 360 was tied for the #2 program for all of primetime (tying with HANNITY & COLMES and beating GRETA). Thursday and Friday both eroded to the point where 360 lost the week due to those two nights really pulling down the average. While Senator Obama was also interviewed on the program Friday, it appears that the earlier interview on Fox took the audience. Friday was the lowest night of the week and I would have expected it to perform better. AC360’s week average was up 65,000 viewers over the prior week – nothing to sneeze at, but GRETA was up 100,000. It did take some doing to find a picture of “the Toob” with his webcam from Hawaii on Monday, but you’d be surprised what you can find on Google Images with search words…..

So that’s it - another win in the key demographic of Adults 25-54 in Primary coverage and good weekly increases for the CNN programs. ~ RATINGS GURU

*4 day average; Primary coverage aired Tuesday.
**3 day average; Primary coverage aired Tuesday; Dan Abrams does not air Fridays.
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54; Live + Same Day (LS); Fast Track Nationals.


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