Ratings At A Glance

Ratings for the Republican National Convention
September 2 - September 4, 2008

DAY 1 Tuesday, September 2nd	10PM^Total Viewers FOX 6,179,000 NBC 4,930,000 CNN 3,200,000 ABC 3,030,000 CBS 2,940,000 MSNBC 1,590,000
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 2,210,000 CNN 1,311,000 MSNBC 676,000
The Republicans took the stage last week at their national convention. CNN did well with the Democrats; FOX did very well with the Republicans. Once again this week, I'm only showing the 10PM hour above since that was the common time period that all of the networks aired convention coverage. FOX not only did well against other cable news networks, but had more total viewers than all three of the broadcast news networks. CNN’s average per hour for the night (7PM – MIDNIGHT) in the demo was 843,200 viewers and 2,147,600 total viewers. In comparison, MSNBC averaged 499,600 viewers in the demo and 1,285,000 total viewers during the same time frame. FOX only coded their 9PM, 10PM, and part of their 11PM hour as convention coverage.
DAY 2 Wednesday, September 3rd	10PM^Total Viewers FOX 9,038,000 NBC 7,720,000 CNN 6,114,000 ABC 5,050,000 CBS 4,630,000 MSNBC 3,277,000
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 3,538,000 CNN 2,696,000 MSNBC 1,301,000
FOX once again had more total viewers than any other news network. CNN did better than ABC, CBS, and MSNBC. CNN’s average per hour for the night (7PM – MIDNIGHT) in the demo was 1,535,400 viewers and 3,681,800 total viewers. In comparison, MSNBC averaged 760,200 viewers in the demo and 2,012,200 total viewers during the same time frame.
DAY 3 Thursday, September 4th	10PM^Total Viewers FOX 9,187,000 NBC 8,064,000 CBS 5,076,000 ABC 4,966,000 CNN 4,874,000 MSNBC 2,504,000
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 3,290,000 CNN 2,119,000 MSNBC 1,048,000
The last day of the convention still has FOX at the top in the ratings with the most total viewers during the 10PM hour. This was a record number of viewers for FOX. CNN dropped below both CBS and ABC. CNN’s average per hour for the night (7PM – MIDNIGHT) in the demo was 1,073,000 viewers and 2,721,000 total viewers. In comparison, MSNBC averaged 570,400 viewers in the demo and 1,073,800 total viewers during the same time frame.

^{^} Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

A recent promotion that has been running on CNN is a revised version of CNN: The Most Trusted Name in News. This is based on a recent Pew Research Center study.

When asked whether a network was believable all or most of the time, 30% of those that responded gave CNN the highest rating. Here's how the other networks or programs faired:

CNN	30%
60 Minutes	29%
Local TV News	28%
NPR	27%
C-SPAN	26%
NBC News	24%
ABC News	24%
MSNBC	24%
FOX News Channel	23%
NewsHour	23%
CBS News	22%
BBC	21%

The study also shows that your political affiliation probably has an impact on how you rate a news networks credibility. 34% of Republicans thought FOX was credible compared to 22% of Republicans that thought that CNN was credible. 35% of Democrats thought that CNN was credible, but only 19% said the same thing about FOX. This helps explain the ratings difference between the two political conventions. For the Republican convention, viewers tuned into FOX. For the Democrats' convention, viewers watched CNN.

Here are a few CNN related highlights from the rest of the study:

• More people watch cable news (39%) regularly than they do network news(29%).
• 24% of the public regularly watch CNN.
• 51% of CNN's viewers are Democrat; 18% Republican; 23% Independent.
• 51% Male; 49% Female
• 32% are college graduates
• 19% were able to answer three knowledge questions correctly
• 47% of the regular viewers are age 50+
• Lou Dobbs regular audience
  • 38% Conservative, 34% Moderate, and 18% Liberal
  • Age breakdown:
    • 18 - 29: 11%
    • 30-49: 17%
    • 50-64: 36%
    • 65+: 31%
  • 78% of audience follow national news the most
  • 37% of viewers are college graduates
  • 27% of regular viewers were able to answer three knowledge questions correctly.
• Larry King Live's regular audience:
  • 33% Conservative, 31% Moderate, and 30% Liberal.
  • Age breakdown:
    • 18-29: 23%
    • 30-49: 30%
    • 50-64: 21%
    • 65+: 24%
  • 53% Male and 47% Female
  • 26% are a college graduate
  • 19% of regular viewers were able to answer three knowledge questions correctly

Source: Pew Research Center August 2008 Survey. Based on a nationwide survey of 3,615 adults, 18 years of age or older. Survey was ocmpleted between April 30 to June 1, 2008.

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