Ratings At A Glance

All photos courtesy of CNN/Justin Larose, CNN

“A CHANGE IS GONNA COME…”
But Not with CNN’s Primary Dominance

Yeah, I had to play on Sam Cooke’s (and for you IDOL fans – Syesha Mercado’s song choice) terrific song for my swan song. Yup, change has come in a big way for me within the industry that does not allow me to continue my ratings posts. I’m completely convinced television is in my DNA, which I guess is a good thing since it is my career, but not so good if you want to blog and not run into conflicts. Phebe and the gang have been wonderful hosts to me, and I know plans are in the works to be able to keep you informed.

At least my last post will continue to include great news for primary coverage on CNN. Since last night is fresh in our minds, we’ll do the primary coverage first and then get into last week’s ratings. All channels began their coverage at 7PM with dramatic ratings fall off at the 11PM hour, so we have averaged 7PM-12MD. MSNBC did start their coverage an hour earlier, but it was third in the time period, so we are going to keep everyone’s hours consistent for comparison.

Tuesday, May 5, 2008 Primary and Results Coverage for Indiana and North Carolina:



How could we use any other photo but John King at the “Magic Board?” He, along with CNN, has received great media publicity recently with this technical expertise that all feel sets them apart from the other channels. And let’s face it; it’s pretty cool when you can look at individual precincts and a color coded map to understand how urban areas versus rural areas sway the vote. There were times when John just shrank and opened areas of the map to have some kind of visual going on in the background. You know it’s a long night when the control room tells you to play with the board. My favorite moment I must admit was when John King and others kept asking the mayor of Gary, Indiana what was taking the vote count so long and got the same answer at least six times. I started singing “Gary Indiana,” the song I got so bored.

7PM – 12MD, Adults 25-54:^
Fox News: 555,000
CNN: 964,000
MSNBC: 641,000

Yes, CNN was first by a long shot, but once again with the help of NBC News personnel, MSNBC came in second in the key demo. Fox News was fairly consistent throughout the entire night where as 9PM – 12MD really popped for CNN. MSNBC was second 9-12MD, but nowhere close to CNN’s performance.

7PM-12MD, Total Audience 2+: ^
Fox News: 1,981,000
CNN: 2,414,000
MSNBC: 1,523,000

CNN did lose the 7PM and 8PM hours to Fox in Total Audience 2+ but then just crushed them 9PM – 12MD. MSNBC was only close in the 10PM hour, but still had very respectable audience numbers for this primary night. CNN topped out at 2,178,000 at the 10PM hour when most analysis kicked in from the North Carolina Primary and the two speeches by the candidates. Indiana kept the channels cranking until well after midnight until a squeaker of a win was declared for Senator Clinton in Indiana.

While there may be political fatigue, on a primary night, the American public wants to know what is going on.

And now onto last week:

8PM:^
Fox News: 620,000
CNN: 219,000
MSNBC: 341,000

Billo had an exceptionally high Wednesday when he interviewed Hillary Clinton. It had a great deal of advance press and promotion, so it brought up his average for the week fairly dramatically. Campbell Brown’s strongest night was Monday with 305,000 – a weak Thursday and Friday pulled her average down. MSNBC is up nicely from the week prior even with a weak Wednesday performance. Oddly, Campbell Brown’s audience didn’t shift much with the Clinton interview on Fox News, but COUNTDOWN’s audience did – it was its worst night of the week.

9PM:^
Fox News: 484,000
CNN: 299,000
MSNBC: 200,000

Go figure, HANNITY & COLMES beat Billo on Tuesday. Usually it is the other way around most nights – O’Reilly’s program helps H&C by providing a strong and solid lead-in to their program. And on Wednesday, H&C lost 437,000 viewers after the Clinton interview. You know, Fox News makes it a point to beat CNN up when they lose audience after “event” programming. Most channels do, but this year with politics being of interest, cable news/information is up over its performance the year prior. CNN typically settles into normal viewership after a debate or primary coverage, after being #1 for the night. Well, it seems that viewer’s program choices are variable as well, thus the major cliff dive taken after Bill finished with the Senator. Dan Abrams was up nicely over last week with his strongest night being Tuesday.

10PM:^
Fox News: 374,000
CNN: 324,000
MSNBC: 208,000

GRETA had two exceptional nights Monday and Tuesday which helped her to the #1 position for the week. Oddly, GRETA and 360 tied in the key demographic of Adults 25-54 on Friday. Friday was not AC360’s lowest night – Thursday was. Cooper & Company had a high of 396,000 on Monday, but Thursday sank to 258,000 – quite a swing in one week. Personally, I think it has much to do with sampling and story coverage than any major audience shifts or tune-outs.

So there you have it. I always wished I could have gotten into more demographics for you as well as gender splits. It would explain the audiences so much better – but we just didn’t have access to that kind of information. I will in my new position, but unfortunately, it will be “zip the lips” when it comes to blogging.

As opinion free as I could be, I hope I gave you a little insight into the arcane world of ratings.
RATINGS GURU

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

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Wolf Meets The Pope and Ratings

Today during Situation Room Wolf Blitzer spoke with John King about just meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. It is nice to know that Pope Benedict watches CNN like all of us.

Wolf was also joined by Delia Gallagher to discuss the breaking news of Pope Benedict meeting with some of the victims of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. It is really unfortunate that we only get to see Delia when it concerns the Pope but she look fabulous and it has been great seeing her. A commentor a few weeks ago when I posted about Delia's birthday asked where Delia has been so I hope you have enjoyed the last few days having her back on CNN.

SAME STUFF – DIFFERENT DAY
For CABLE NEWS And INFORMATION CHANNELS

Can I say the “dog days” of April? You would have to with this past week’s audience performances. Even out of primetime programs are in full malaise with audiences – David Gregory was off from the previous week and HARDBALL is off. In primetime, COUNTDOWN’S rebroadcast at 10PM is down in the dumps, Billo had desertion for most of the week at 11PM in comparison to weeks prior, and 8PM was nothing for him to write home about either. Is the same for CNN? Well, all three programs in primetime have witnessed growth from the week before. Whether or not they are substantial, at least they are up.

8PM:^
Fox News: 460,000
CNN: 201,000*
MSNBC: 315,000

Campbell Brown did double duty for most of the week, anchoring her program at 8PM and subbing for four days for Anderson Cooper at 10PM. Her 8PM numbers are up nicely over the week prior – 34,000 Adults 25-54, but her program is a four day average - it did not air (DNA) on Friday. Billo’s audience was flat with the week prior but once again, audience eroded in the time period over the week and really fell on Friday (321,000). COUNTDOWN was also down for the week also witnessing a weak Friday.

9PM:^
Fox News: 371,000
CNN: 307,000
MSNBC: 154,000*

Fox is down, Larry is up and MSNBC is down. Is there a pattern here? Not really, just typical tune-in, tune-out viewership in a month of little news activity. LKL’s strongest nights were Monday – Wednesday with typical erosion on Friday like every channel except MSNBC. Dan Abrams was ‘way off of his week prior, and he only aired 4 nights. A special documentary and then discussion at 10PM aired on MSNBC – and it was a powerful doc – “Meeting David Wilson.”

10PM:^
Fox News: 285,000
CNN: 264,000
MSNBC: 179,000*

10PM is down for Fox News, CNN is up slightly and MSNBC is flat with the week prior. GRETA barely hit 300,000 and only on one day of the week. Anderson Cooper had subs of Campbell Brown and Erica Hill at 10PM for the five days, and MSNBC’s COUNTDOWN repeat was a four day average with Friday being devoted to a Brian Williams led discussion of the documentary on race. MSNBC has used NBC network news personnel on a regular basis, and I have to say, it definitely attracts audiences. MSNBC with 299,000 took the 10PM time period on Friday even though for the week they were third. GRETA barely squeaked out a win against 360 by only 21,000 viewers. AC360 beat GRETA on three nights (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) so it was a close contest.
RATINGS GURU

*4 Day Average; program did not air (DNA) Friday.
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 Live + Same Day (LS); Fast Track Nationals.

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Ratings At A Glance

EVERY CHANNEL HAD GOOD DAYS AND BAD

DAYS LAST WEEK IN CABLE NEWS AND INFORMATION


With the “lull” in the political season, cable news/information channels are not having the big spikes in audience, but do have some fairly remarkable ups and downs. One reason is not only the importance of the news of the day, but daylight savings time, the start of return of primetime programming on the broadcast nets, and general fluctuation of audience. There was really nothing of importance in the audience figures. Telling you whether a program was “up” or “down” really isn’t that important in the overall scheme of things – it is long term trends which are important. But for those of you who are keeping score…

8PM:^
Fox News: 461,000
CNN: 167,000
MSNBC: 374,000

Billo is up about +5% over last week whereas ELECTION CENTER is ‘way down – 74,000 Adults 25 – 54. Since Campbell Brown anchored both weeks, the trend is too early to reflect on her more than it is the lull in the primary/debate season. Not an excuse here, but when a program is down, I look for the “why” and it is too early to pronounce a verdict on the program. COUNTDOWN was also up over last week, +7%. The other programs in the time period are not so politics-driven and therefore dependent on fresh political news.

9PM:^
Fox News: 385,000
CNN: 280,000*
MSNBC: 191,000

HANNITY & COLMES were down significantly this past week versus the week prior. They typically have a heavy political guest slant of late and could also explain the deficit. LKL is up ever so slightly from the week prior, but the increase is almost a wash. LKL is also listed as only airing 4 days out of the five due to the special on Martin Luther King. Dan Abrams’ VERDICT had a very respectable week and a good increase over the week prior – a +13% increase. We’ll see if that “mini” trend continues with the new format.

10PM:^
Fox News: 305,000
CNN: 248,000*
MSNBC: 179,000

GRETA is off -8% last week from the week prior while AC360 is basically equal in comparing the two weeks. 360 only aired 4 days out of 5 due to the Martin Luther King special on Thursday which Nielsen coded a special airing 9PM-11PM. 360 on that evening was coded at 11PM, and actually beat the O’Reilly rebroadcast which is unusual. The COUNTDOWN rebroadcast which is new programming for MSNBC in the time period is up 19,000 over the week prior – again to early to predict trends.


NOTE: How did the Martin Luther King Special do on CNN – very well – it was a solid #1 in the time period from 9PM – 11PM with no competitor even close in the time periods. At an average of 433,000 Adults 25-54 only Billo beat it in all of primetime for the week.

So that’s it – a very average week in cable audience performance.
RATINGS GURU

^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 Live + Same Day (LS); Fast Track Nationals.
*4 day average; Martin Luther King Special aired Thursday 9PM-11PM.

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Ratings At A Glance

THE END OF MARCH GOES OUT LIKE A LAMB FOR CABLE NEWS/INFORMATION...But The First Quarter Audience Growth Over Last Year Is Great For CNN


With Daylight Savings Time, Spring Break and no primaries or debates, it was an average week for cable news/information channels. The first quarter of 2008 press releases are out, and because of some outstanding performances throughout January, February and March, CNN did very well in increasing its audience in the key demographic of Adults 25-54 in several hours over the course of the day. We’ll get to some of the highlights later.

8PM:^
Fox News: 444,000
CNN: 241,000*
MSNBC: 349,000

Everyone is down this past week in comparison to the week prior. And let’s face it – the week of March 17-21 had some breaking news stories, so this would not be unusual. Monday and Wednesday were Billo’s strongest days. COUNTDOWN had a great Monday but a Keith-less Friday was ‘way off the average, and his high point on Monday. CNN’s SPECIAL INVESTIGATION on Friday actually performed better than Campbell Brown’s political program Monday – Thursday, but audiences are still settling into that program and she had a good Tuesday.

9PM:^
Fox News: 437,000
CNN: 268,000
MSNBC: 166,000

Yes, HANNITY & COMLES almost equaled Bill O’Reilly’s audience this past week. LKL took a little bit of a hit in audience loss this week and MSNBC even suffered further with VERDICT. Now again, keep in mind, audiences need to sample and make a decision about the new Dan Abrams format, so this programming is still in the process of finding an audience.

10PM:^
Fox News: 332,000
CNN: 246,000
MSNBC: 160,000

Well, GRETA had an average week, but it topped 360, but 360 topped the newly instituted rebroadcast of COUNTDOWN. Previously there would be some weeks where MSNBC’s “docbloc” would be very competitive to 360, so this change so far is not for the better for MSNBC. It does give COUNTDOWN more sampling and the ability for MSNBC to do some combining of audience to boast about the delivery, but I view reruns separate than first run. Again, this is a new program switch, so it make take viewers time to realize the program can be watched at a later hour. For the time being, AC360 battles it out for first place with GRETA. 360 tends to be more political based and GRETA has focused quite a bit on guest interviews and fairly sensational crime stories.

FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS FOR CNN:

First quarter releases are based on First Quarter 2008 versus First Quarter 2007. Primetime – 8-11PM Monday – Sunday includes all programming which aired in that time period block regardless of the actual program. For individual primetime hours, CNN has calculated the figures based on regularly scheduled programs in that time period, but it can include special editions of the telecast. In many instances, particularly with AC360, the programs had several post-debate and primary coverage special editions. Those are included in the hour average for the quarter as they were coded as such, submitted and approved by Nielsen.

Courtesy: CNN
So CNN’s version of the Verdict:

TOTAL AUDIENCE, 2+; CNN Primetime; 1st Quarter 2008 versus 1st Quarter 2007:^
Primetime 8-11PM Monday – Sunday: +64%
Primetime 8-11PM Monday – Friday: +70%
Primetime 8-9PM Monday – Friday: +70%
Primetime 9-10PM Monday – Friday: +1%
Primetime 10-11PM Monday – Friday: +51%

Courtesy: CNN

TOTAL AUDIENCE 2+; CNN Highlights Outside of Primetime; 2008 versus 2007:^
American Morning 6AM-9AM: +11%
Situation Room 4PM-5PM: +13%
Situation Room 5PM-6PM: +17%
Situation Room 6PM-7PM: -4%
Lou Dobbs Tonight 7PM-8PM: +58%
Courtesy: CNN

ADULTS 25-54; CNN Primetime; 1st Quarter 2008 versus 2007:^
Primetime 8-11PM Monday – Sunday: +87%
Primetime 8-11PM Monday – Friday: +97%
Primetime 8-9PM Monday – Friday: +74%
Primetime 9-10PM Monday – Friday: +10%
Primetime 10-11PM Monday – Friday: +60%

ADULTS 25-54; CNN Highlights Outside of Primetime; 1st Quarter 2008 versus 2007:^
American Morning 6AM-9AM: EQUAL
Situation Room 4PM-5PM: +2%
Situation Room 5PM-6PM: +6%
Situation Room 6PM-7PM: EQUAL
Lou Dobbs Tonight 7PM-8PM: +46%


A great quarter for CNN and its political coverage. ~RATINGS GURU

^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS); Fast Track Nationals and Final Audience Figures for 1st Quarter.
*4 day Average; CNN Special Investigation aired on Friday.

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Last Week's Ratings At A Glance

CNN has Highs on Certain Nights
And the Audience takes Friday off (as do some anchors/hosts)

Easter week, which is also Spring Break in many areas of the country can really affect audience viewership and it sure did with the cable news/information channels. Some of the increases can just be fluctuations in audience, so I would not read too much into big spikes in regularly scheduled programming unless there was some kind of “event.” Both Fox News and CNN witnessed drastic fall-off of audiences on Good Friday – many anchors/hosts took the night off and so did audiences. MSNBC normally posts average numbers on that night, so their fall-off was not so noticeable. This week also presented new schedule changes on CNN and MSNBC, but I would not expect one week to reflect a trend of the new/repackaged programs. And while the week was heavy on politics, it did not have special programming such as primary or debate coverage and analysis to boost ratings.

Courtesy: CNN

8PM:^
Fox News: 546,000
CNN: 266,000
MSNBC: 372,000

Billo had a hot St. Patrick ’s Day, but it was all down hill from there including a poor repeat (in comparison to his usual weekly average performance) on Friday. Campbell Brown had a full week in her time slot of 8PM, and while concentrated heavily on politics, it is no longer coded “ELECTION CENTER.” In comparison to last week, she was down 79,000 with much due to a poor performance on Good Friday. COUNTDOWN was up a modest 24,000, but also had a weak Friday like everyone else.
Courtesy: CNN


9PM:^
Fox News: 496,000
CNN: 332,000
MSNBC: 192,000

Well, HANNITY & COLMES had an outstanding week, even with a huge audience fall-off on Friday. I tuned into their programming for just minutes to see what they were covering and could never get away from Sean Hannity on rants about the democrats, Senator Obama or his minister. So, I can only chalk it up to controversy which appealed to their kind of audience. LKL witnessed a substantial audience for his Thursday night interview with Senator Obama. At 520,000 viewers for the key demographic of Adults 25-54, you can see it was far above his week average. He was the #2 program for the night in the cable news/information competition. MSNBC offered the Dan Abrams/Dan Abrams VERDICT (honestly I see very little difference in the old Dan Abrams and Verdict, but again, it is only a small sampling). Abrams’ numbers were down slightly, but primarily due to a very weak Friday. He was never on the air on Fridays, so viewers will have to get used to not seeing “docbloc” and seeing VERDICT on Fridays.

10PM:^
Fox News: 401,000
CNN: 337,000
MSNBC: 189,000

Yes, we got through the week with no asterisks (*)! Everyone aired regularly scheduled programming for the week. GRETA is off 70,000 from the week before, but she also had a disaster for a Friday performance. AC360 was off an even further 121,000 viewers this week versus the week prior with Monday and Friday pulling down the average. You would think the strongest night would have been his road trip with Senator Obama (Wednesday) – and it was very good, but Thursday was the strongest night. Thursday was “Passportgate,” which broke very late in the day and had further controversy with regard to Senator Obama’s comments about his portrayal and perception of his grandmother’s “typical” actions. Props to 360 substitute anchor John King on Friday as it was a weak day for everyone, but he managed to rank third out of all cable news/information primetime 8PM-11PM programming. I can’t explain the fall-off on Monday, except maybe a lot of 360 viewers are Irish???? MSNBC, well, the first week of COUNTDOWN repeats did slightly better than most “docbloc” programming. It’s really too early to tell if there will be any impact on AC360.

Courtesy: CNN

And as a side note, how did “Shock and Awe” do? Slightly better than the 11PM AC360 time slot of rebroadcasts. But considering there is well discussed “Iraq fatigue” (don’t bring this up in my household!), 349,000 Adults 25-54 for its first run on Thursday was very satisfactory for in-depth programming late at night. It was re-broadcast 2X over the weekend - #1 in its time period on Saturday, and unfortunately #3 on Sunday (Easter – to be expected).
RATINGS GURU

^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54, Live + Same Day (LS); Fast Track Nationals.



All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

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.


All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta Interview and Ratings

The National Review of Medicine recently did an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and it is a great read. You can read what Sanjay has to say about the tsunami, Iraq, Katrina and a few of his CNN co-workers by following the link.

That is it for me this week, I now leave you with our resident Ratings Guru with a wrap up from last week ~ Sapphire

ONE DEBATE AND A PRETTY AVERAGE WEEK IN CABLE NEWS/INFORMATION LAST WEEK
Yes, With The March 4 Primary Night Thrown in for Good Measure!


Well, watch out for the “flame throwers” because The New York Times featured CNN’s ratings comeback with a Page One article in the Business section of the paper today (March 5). Everyone wants to be #1, and there are a lot of ways to analyze the audiences on cable channels. But stretching the truth or stating a ranking based on a really technical interpretation of the numbers is just not my style.

All the cable channels are running promos and print advertising which require real scrutiny to understand exactly how they are coming up with their statements. MSNBC for example, ran a color, full page ad in The New York Times saying “MSNBC was the most-watched network in all of TV.” True? Well, the sourcing on the ad says 10P-11P Tuesday only. Well who considers a channel “most watched” based on ONE HOUR, let alone that it consisted of 36 minutes of Debate and the rest, analysis. MSNBC also said they were the “#1 program on Cable” last week. That statement is true. Why not just go with the truth? The number #1 network in all of TV last Tuesday night was FOX – FBC that is, with “American Idol” and “Back To You” programmed from 8PM-10PM. Nothing the networks or cable programmed from 10-11PM even when FBC goes off the air, topped the Tuesday audience of FBC. As a side note, MSNBC also had the #2 program in all of Cable last week with the Debate analysis - a true statement. This gives them two true statements rather than one that so stretches the technicalities of research and one true statement just leaves their research and promotion department open to question. Why do that? Because all the cable channels do like to try to point out anything positive about their audience delivery.

Okay, now onto The Super Tuesday II primary coverage:

Courtesy: The New York Times/CNN

March 4, 2008 Primary coverage 7PM-12MD, Adults 25-54^:
Fox News: 830,000
CNN: 1,590,000
MSNBC: 876,000

No contest as to which channel audiences preferred to watch for primary results.

March 4, 2008 Primary Coverage 7PM-12MD, Total Audience 2+^:
Fox News: 2,980,000
CNN: 3,690,000
MSNBC: 2,040,000

Again, CNN was a solid #1 in Total viewers as well for the five hour block. CNN peaked at 9PM with 4.4 million Total Audience 2+!

Let’s keep in mind however, there was little to no coverage outside of network news on the broadcast nets – and that information was very early in the evening, even with an updated version for the Western states. Had the networks had a block of coverage, it could have been a much different outcome in terms of the numbers of viewers for cable. It is my opinion from experience that even with lower numbers, CNN would have still been #1 in CABLE because they have been in primary coverage for most of the state races.

While the timing was serendipitous, The New York Times’ Business section Wednesday (March 5) wrote a major feature on CNN’s resurgence in the ratings by focusing on very clearly defining the product with viewers that they are hard news and politics this year (according to President, Jim Walton). To be fair, the overall focus of the channel was written about, not that there are not variances on the air, from this philosophy.

LAST WEEK…

8PM:
Fox News: 504,000
CNN: 289,000
MSNBC: 491,000*

Bill O’Reilly typically takes this hour, but CNN’s ELECTION CENTER continues to inch up in audience delivery. Interestingly, ELECTION CENTER had its strongest night on the night of MSNBC’s debate – Tuesday – even though the program was on earlier than the debate. Viewers are clearly tuning in for political news. COUNTDOWN had an exceptional week due to an enormous Tuesday audience leading into the Debate coverage.

9PM:
Fox News: 434,000
CNN: 308,000
MSNBC: 255,000**

HANNITY & COMLES had a weak Tuesday (MSNBC debate) and Friday, but was still able to post the #1 ranking. LKL had slightly lower than average performing programming for most of the week, but could still post a #2 finish. MSNBC’s Dan Abrams only aired 3 nights and while stronger than normal, still came in third.

10PM:
Fox News: 369,000
CNN: 298,000
MSNBC: 295,000***

Greta won back audience this week with AC360 having a fairly weak performance during the week with the exception of a fairly strong Thursday. A low Tuesday because of the debate on MSNBC clearly hurt the program along with a weak Monday. Friday, while down, was not the worst day for 360 – Tuesday and Monday were the days that really dragged the average down for the week.

So that’s it – a fairly unexceptional week with just some unusual ratings statements on the part of MSNBC.
RATINGS GURU

*Did not air Friday; debate rerun.
**Aired 3 days only; debate aired Tuesday and reran on Friday.
***Aired 4 days only; debate aired Tuesday.
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics noted; Live + Same Day (LS), Fast Track Nationals.


All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

CNN Ratings- Primary & Debate

BIG NIGHTS AND RATINGS ONCE AGAIN FOR CNN –
Wisconsin, Hawaii and Washington State Primaries and
Democratic Debate – Austin, TX Feb. 21

You know, it’s a little scary when you know there was a primary this week, but you can’t remember what states or parties they were for and have to go back and look them up! Whew!

But, the key demographic of Adults 25-54 continue to tune to CNN as the channel of choice for primary and debate coverage.

Courtesy: CNN

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008 Wisconsin, Hawaii, Washington State Primaries/Caucus 9-11PM:^
Fox News: 692,000
CNN: 825,000
MSNBC: 673,000

All channels aired regular programming at 8PM, which is why we have not included it in the average. While CNN with ELECTION CENTER did feature all political coverage with a build up to the primary coverage, COUNTDOWN and BILL O’REILLY also featured substantial political stories and commentary by contributors.

What drove the CNN coverage? A very strong showing at 10PM for the special coded AC360. 255,000 more viewers 25-54 tuned into AC360 versus YOU DECIDE on Fox News. As expected, there was even more of a disparity between CNN at 10PM and MSNBC’s “SPECIAL COVERAGE – 272,000 audience advantage for CNN. What is surprising is how close MSNBC came to beating Fox News in the key demo – only off by 17,000 viewers. This difference in audience is within the Nielsen statistical margin of error - +/-3%.

A couple of other side notes: The number #1 program in all of primetime 8PM-11PM Tuesday night – SPECIAL AC 360 with 952,000 viewers 25-54.

Courtesy: CNN ELECTION CENTER

CNN beat Fox News in Total Audience 2+ in only the 10PM hour of primary coverage, but beat MSNBC handily by 613,000 Total Audience 2+.

However, even more telling is how the 8PM programming turned out, and it deserves showing:

8PM: ^
Bill O’Reilly: 570,000
CNN ELECTION CENTER: 609,000
COUNTDOWN: 438,000

Yup, your eyes are not deceiving you – CNN beat Bill O’Reilly in the key demographic of Adults 25-54. Audiences clearly expected primary coverage to start at 8PM because this is an enormous increase in the time period for CNN, not seen since its SUPER TUESDAY coverage on Feb. 5.

Courtesy: CNN Democratic Debate – Austin, TX

Thursday, February 21, 2008 Austin, TX Democratic Debate, 8P-9:44PM; Adults 25-54:^

Fox News: 449,000*
CNN DEBATE: 2,986,000
MSNBC: 189,000*

CNN DEBATE Total Audience 2+: 7,576,000

Americans are watching debates in record numbers, particularly on CNN. To be fair, Fox News and MSNBC’s numbers are time period averages of their regular programming. However, at 10PM, MSNBC went into post-debate coverage and increased 359% from 117,000 to 420,000 for Adults 25-54. MSNBC didn’t quite beat Fox News, but came very close – only 11,000 Adults 25-54 difference.

Courtesy: All Things Anderson Blog; Special post-debate AC360.

HOWEVER, CNN far and away took the night with the debate and a post-debate Special AC 360 analysis. 360 delivered almost 1.3 million viewers 25-54 years old which far surpassed Fox News and MSNBC.

This debate ranks 3rd for the entire debate season which began in April 2007. The top ranking debate is still the primetime ABC Democratic debate which was rerun on CNN and the #2 ranking debate is CNN’s historic (for cable) Democratic Debate on Jan. 31, 2008 in Los Angeles.
CNN now has 6 of the top 10 debates for this long 2007-08 debate season.

Courtesy: Google Images; CNN; BROKEN GOVERNMENT CNN Special Programming

Even BROKEN GOVERNMENT easily took the time period for CNN at 11PM Eastern in comparison to post-debate coverage on MSNBC and a rerun of Bill O’Reilly on Fox News.

All in all, a great Tuesday primetime and another great debate for CNN on Thursday.
RATINGS GURU

^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; demographics noted; Live + Same Day (LS), Fast Track Nationals.
*Time period averages only.

LKL, SIU and the Ratings.

Larry King's lost touch with the people? Say it isn't so! Tuesday night brought us another hilarious LKL guest appearance by Jon Stewart.

CNN: Special Investigations Unit–Broken Government Scorched Earth

Miles O'Brien latest edition to the SIU series premieres on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 11 p.m. It will re-air on Saturday, Feb. 23, and Sunday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m., 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. (Eastern)

Criss-crossing the country, O’Brien reports on examples of frustrating environmental policy failures, and savvy citizens working to find solutions. In Texas, O’Brien finds a company that has so far been able to evade toxic waste compliance by filing for bankruptcy, despite reporting corporate profits. In Iowa, O’Brien reports that despite broad, bipartisan political support and federal subsidies, the promises that corn ethanol would be a renewable fuel that would lessen the nation’s reliance on petroleum imports are being called into question. In the Badlands of South Dakota, O’Brien reveals the irony of two competing, multi-million-dollar federal programs – while one agency works to restore the endangered black-footed ferret from the brink of extinction, a rival government agency has hatched a plan that could kill them off again. Back in Washington, D.C., O’Brien investigates charges by global-warming scientists that their federal bosses have interfered with or silenced their scientific findings that do not support Bush administration policies.
Finally, O’Brien reports on innovative citizens, corporations and state governments that are working to bypass gridlock to find solutions to these challenges.
For more information on these and other environmental and technology stories, CNN’s science and technology team has launched a new blog with commentary on a range of issues at http://www.cnn.com/TECH/.

That's it for me this week. Take a few minutes to check last week's ratings, always an interesting read. ~ Phebe

WELL SINCE ATA POSTED LAST WEEK’S POTOMAC PRIMARY NUMBERS – I HAVE A WEEK TO COVER WITH 4 DAYS OF REGULAR PROGRAMMING (sort of…)

Four days of straight regular programming. Now you may or may not like the outcome, but as I have always said, don’t shoot the messenger. We stick to the facts, but every once in a while throw in a snarky comment – humor me, numbers can make you go blind.

But there are times you may wonder why I don’t comment on certain channel statements or charts that are issued. As an example, there is a chart that is published weekly, listing the Top 50 cable channels. We don’t comment on those. Why? Well, my role is what happened during the week in cable news/information in primetime for the “big three” and that published ranking takes into consideration all cable channel formats. It is not really fair to compare disparate formats all lumped into one list for primetime, and also based on the widest possible demographic – Total Audience 2+. The whole purpose of cable programming was to target audiences – one can get mass audience (well most of the time…) on broadcast television. Cable allows for specialized viewing and that is a good thing – just not a way to measure the success of a channel. And further, advertisers look at Adults 18-49 or Adults 25-54 in a block of programming basis called “dayparts,” or on a program basis – not on Monday – Sunday 8PM-11PM or Monday – Sunday, 24 hours called “Total Day.” The advertising industry just does not value channels that way. That channel chart is very different than the weekly Top 20 Cable Programs. However, based on Total Audience 2+, the program list is normally dominated with kids/teen/wrestling programming unless the primary or debate audiences are extremely high.

And just another FYI. This is a site for information primarily about CNN. You may see statements about the channel’s successes that I don’t mention. They tend to be promotional announcements or press releases. If they are not sourced directly to specific Nielsen audience figures that we can verify, we don’t print it. Many channels want to highlight their achievements and we are all for that. But unless I have the facts to back up what I write, I don’t write it. It doesn’t mean it isn’t correct, but I don’t write about anything unless I know exactly where it is sourced in Nielsen and is it a fair valuation by the advertising industry.

I have said in the past, I would be very happy to have additional demographic information so that I could give you a better idea of exactly what kind of audiences watch a channel – but that information is not available to us on any kind of consistent basis. So, we work with what we have, and it is sourced.

Viewership is ‘way up not only on cable, but on the way back for broadcast now that the writer’s strike is over, AMERICAN IDOL (referred to as the “death star” by the other nets – well, because it is with 29 million viewers even with the start of the “Final 24”) is in full swing and we have the “February “Sweep;” although much regular programming will be back on the air by March/April so it won’t help this month.

8PM:^
Fox News: 496,000*
CNN: 297,000*
MSNBC: 390,000*

CNN’s ELECTION CENTRAL is actually up +7% over last week even though it is still coming in third in the time period. And CNN had an up tick the week before last. Now it may not be a trend, but it shows there is interest in the hour. FOX is down -10% from the week before, and COUNTDOWN is up slightly, so there is some fluctuation in the time period.

9PM:^
Fox News: 436,000*
CNN: 355,000*
MSNBC: 214,000*

With so much political coverage in the 9PM time period the week before, LKL did have some audience erosion, as did Fox News. Hannity and Colmes did code their Tuesday program as an H&C even though everyone else coded “Election Coverage.” It would have raised their five day average to 478,000 versus the 4 day I posted – so I’ll let you decide. LKL was NOT coded on Tuesday during election coverage, so there is no way I can average in CNN’s time period killer audience of 1 million viewers into the average. Even though MSNBC brings up the rear, it is up slightly in audience over last week – probably due to regular programming and not having such an emphasis on politics that Dan Abrams doesn’t cover consistently.

10PM:^
Fox News: 420,000
CNN: 459,000
MSNBC: 230,000*

This is a tough call. It was very clear that Primary Coverage was on all channels last Tuesday, but only MSNBC coded their coverage as “Special” rather than their normal investigation block. Fox News and CNN both coded their programs as regular programming – GRETA and AC360, but it was primary results coverage. Do I count that as part of the regular program average? According to Nielsen, I should. Is it fair? No, it is not regular programming. YIKES! This is going to happen continually. So their averages are in the above numbers. AC360 beat GRETA on the basis of the huge Tuesday primary performance. The program lost to GRETA on Thursday’s NIU shooting coverage/New Orleans and Friday’s taped 360. Monday they were basically tied and Wednesday 360 far outperformed GRETA.

Courtesy: Google Images

CNN is still tops in Primary coverage and it will be very interesting to see how the debate does on Thursday (Feb 21, 2008). It is the highest viewership night in Television and there appears to be great interest in the two democratic candidates, so next week should be interesting along with the results from the Tuesday primaries. Oh, BTW, “the phrase that shall not be named” used on CNN now has the internet moniker of “TBPTOT.”

Just a little current information:

Courtesy: Google Images

Anderson Cooper was on Conan O’Brien Tuesday evening, February 19, 2008. Conan did take the time period against Kimmel, Ferguson and even Carson Daly’s late, late program (but not Letterman or Leno on at an earlier time period). But the numbers are so small at that hour for broadcast (big for cable), there isn’t much difference. It did a 1.7 Household Rating and a 6 Share – over 2 million viewers in broadcast terms.
RATINGS GURU

*4 day average; Potomac Primary aired Tuesday on all channels.
**3 day average; Potomac Primary aired Tuesday; Dan Abrams does not air Fridays.
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 and other audience where noted; Live + Same Day (LS), Fast Track Nationals.


All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

The CNN Express and Last Week's Ratings

CNN’s Senior Business Correspondent and co-host of Your $$$$$ (Money) is on the road in CNN’s Election Express. Ali Velshi will travel from South Carolina to California. Velshi will visit nine states and travel 2600 miles, all in six days. He will stop along the way and talk to the voters about the economy and other issues at the forefront for them. If the weather cooperates look for the CNN Express on Thursday in Abilene, TX, Friday in El Paso, TX, Saturday in Phoenix, AZ and Sunday night in Los Angeles, CA To follow along or to just send Ali a comment the adventure is posted on the CNN Ticker.
In other CNN news Jack Cafferty is appearing with Sue Simmons at 92nd St. Y in NYC on Thursday night. Information about tickets can be found on the CNN Calendar.

IT’S ONLY JANUARY, BUT THE DEBATES AND
PRIMARY COVERAGE IS FAST AND FURIOUS…

Yup it’s only January and we are in full swing with political coverage of caucuses, primaries and yes, more debates. We are almost to the point of two debates a week along with a caucus or primary thrown in. And, Saturdays are now in the mix. Is it good for cable news? It’s GREAT for cable news – just imagine what would be covered if politics were not in full swing (in more ways than one, including mud slinging…). The race is starting to create candidate fall-out so the debates are smaller, the candidates are being “sound-bited” to death and the accusations, real or embellished are being hurled. What will it be like in May just prior to the conventions? CNN and MSNBC have the lion’s share of the debates along with an 8PM block on CNN each night now – “Election Center,” and primary coverage when it happens. CNN is still tops at primary coverage as well.


Let’s start with the weekly averages:

8PM:^
Fox News: 608,000*
CNN: 227,000**
MSNBC: 348,000

The CNN average with or without the special Lou Dobbs on Tuesday came in third in the time period. The viewership landscape is changing, and even with the interest in politics, ELECTION CENTRAL will need a little while to see if it can attract viewers. This block typically comes in third to Bill O’Reilly and COUNTDOWN.

9PM:^
Fox News: 441,000*
CNN: 296,000
MSNBC: 175,000***

Whatever happened on Monday for Fox News, it certainly helped each program’s average in the primetime block. HANNITY and COLMES had a very strong week. LKL had a solid week, with strong programs surprisingly on debate Tuesday and Friday evening. MSNBC without the debate average on Tuesday and its “DocBlock” on Friday remained a steady third with Dan Abrams only airing three days.

10PM:^
Fox News: 438,000****
CNN: 296,000
MSNBC: 150,000*****

Oh yeah, a lot of asterisks here with various programs being pre-empted from their regular fare on the channels. AC360 did air for five full days, and pulled a decent second finish. GRETA was on the road in the Middle East with President Bush and had a one-on-one interview with the President on Wednesday. This program helped her week average along with a very strong performance on Monday.

Program Note: MSNBC did air a Democratic debate on Tuesday night, Jan. 15, 2008 which aired from 9-11PM. They were far and away #1 for the time period along with their post debate analysis on MSNBC at 11PM. In the latest 2007/2008 debate ranking, it came in at #7. CNN with its debate this past Monday still holds the top 4 ranking cable debates, and 5 out of the top 10 in cable.

SATURDAY, Jan 19, 2008 Nevada Democratic Caucus and South Carolina Republican Primary:^

While the Nevada Caucus took place during daytime, Wolf Blitzer manned coverage in New York City. While we don’t get daytime figures, CNN was the strongest in audience delivery beginning at 5PM with its BALLOT BOWL program. CNN had a +17% advantage at 5PM with its BALLOT BOWL in comparison to Fox’s YOU DECIDE. MSNBC was just an also ran in the 5PM hour.
At 6PM, audience viewership tightened up MSNBC edged Fox News and CNN from 6-6:30PM, but Fox News bounced back at 6:30-7PM to edge out MSNBC and CNN.

At 7PM, ELECTION CENTER kicked in and so did the audience for CNN for the rest of the night. CNN led Fox News by comfortable margins to take the night not only in prime, but in averaging the entire block of Caucus/Primary coverage from 5PM-11PM Saturday night. MSNBC’s coverage strengthened considerably at 6PM to beat both Fox News and CNN, but that was the only hour. For the rest of the evening, CNN led all cable channels in covering the political scene.

Primary and Caucus coverage on CNN is setting the standard to be beat. But I’m still not saying “the phrase that shall not be named……”



See you next week and let me know if you have any questions. We’ll look at the age composition in the debates next week – you might find it interesting.
RATINGS GURU

*4 day average; “You Decide” aired Tuesday against debate night on MSNBC.
**4 day average; Lou Dobbs special aired against Tuesday debate night on MSNBC.
***3 day average; democratic debate aired Tuesday; “DocBlock” aired Friday.
****4 day average; special Hannity & Colmes aired Tuesday.
*****4 day average; debate aired Tuesday.
^Courtesy, Nielsen Media Research, Adults 25-54, Live + Same Day (LS), Fast Track Nationals.


All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Gary Tuchman and Last Week's CNN Ratings

I came across a wonderful review of a speech Gary Tuchman gave to the journalism students of Sam Huston State University in 2003. I believe excerpts may have been printed at ATC before but I don't ever recall reading the hilarious story that Tuchman told about a press conference he covered in the mid 1990's.

" One of the things we do is we have big news conferences where we go live and introduce the news conference. Sometimes we have to 'tap dance', which is talking until the conference starts," Tuchman said. "Ten years ago Fidel Castro's daughter defected to the United States, and she settled in Columbus, Ga. She was having a news conference there, with the news conference starting at noon sharp.
"I got there and they tell me, 'OK, Gary, you're going to give a live report at 12 noon, and if the news conference has already started we're just going to go right to the news conference live from CNN, and if not, tap dance until it starts'," he said.
Thirty seconds before the conference was scheduled to begin he began introducing her, expecting her to come out. When she didn't, he began giving general information about the daughter and why she left Cuba.
"Now it's like seven minutes (of 'tap dancing')," he said. "The anchor says, 'Gary, keep going because we're afraid that if you toss it back to me and we go to commercial the news cast will start and we'll miss it, and this is a big story."
So he gave more general information about Castro and Cuba.
"I'm talking and talking, and the thing's not starting. Now it's 20 minutes, and I'm running out of things to say," he said. "Finally, we give up, and I throw back to the anchor; we go a commercial. And sure enough, the second the commercial starts, she comes out, they start the press conference, and we miss the beginning of it. I was really upset.
"After the news conference is over, I asked her, 'How come you didn't start it like you told me? It created a hardship for us'," Tuchman said. "She (Castro's daughter) goes, 'Oh, Gary, we were in the back of the room watching CNN, and we didn't want to interrupt you. So when you went to a commercial, we came out.' We learned a lesson from that. We now tell people to start the press conference whenever they're ready."

To read the entire article just follow the link. Enjoy ~ Phebe

A BUSY WEEK FOR CABLE NEWS
CNN IS STILL ON TOP FOR CABLE DEBATES AND PRIMARY COVERAGE

With this political season, regular programming on the cable news channels and the importance of it is beginning to be lost on all of the special programming starting to invade the primetime schedules. It is raising all cable audiences, but last week, CNN had quite a bit of good news. We’ll look at the Tuesday (Jan. 8) primary coverage as well as the regular week’s programming. Fox News did well with their Republican Debate Thursday (Jan. 10) but ranks as the 5th most popular debate for the debate season which started April, 2007. CNN is still the top ranking cable channel with its YOUTUBE debate from Nov. 28, 2007 (ranked 3rd) and a Democratic debate Nov. 15, 2007 (ranked 4th). Only ABC, a broadcast network, has higher debate audiences with its combination Democratic/Republican debate held Jan. 5, 2008 which CNN rebroadcast.

We’ll first get into last week, then the Primary coverage and finally a brief look at 60 MINUTES. 8PM:
Fox News: 580,000*
CNN: 307,000**
MSNBC: 363,000*

All these audience figures do not include the debate which aired on Fox News Thursday or the Primary coverage airing on Tuesday. So you’re going to see a lot of asterisks to qualify the week’s regular programming. As usual, Bill O’Reilly took the time period – but let’s keep in mind, his 55+ audience FAR outweighs what he even does in the Adults 25-54 key demographic which is what we show. This will be the last week of the respectable showing OUT IN THE OPEN had with its 8PM substitute anchor, Rick Sanchez. COUNTDOWN had a very strong week with audiences up over around 100,000 from previous holiday influenced weeks.

9PM:
Fox News: 469,000***
CNN: 323,000*
MSNBC: 175,000+

Many pre-emptions this week as the debate and the extensive primary coverage kicked in, in a big way with this hour. HANNITY & COMLES only aired three times this week, so it is a very large bounce back for them from the holidays. LKL’s numbers were also up from low performances from the last couple of weeks, but not enough to beat Fox. Dan Abrams only aired three days with minimal impact in the time period.

10PM:
Fox News: 453,000***
CNN: 376,000++
MSNBC: 231,000#

Now here’s where it can get interesting. On primary night (Tuesday) AC360 was coded as an AC360, but in fact it was primary coverage. I eliminated the evening from the regular programming average because all anchors along with contributors were present and it was no different than the rest of the night’s election coverage. In fact, CNN stayed live until 1AM EST as did MSNBC. So if I put the primary coverage audience back in, AC360 beats GRETA – 598,000 to GRETA’s 453,000. I’ll let you decide on that call. MSNBC “docblock” performed average numbers in this time period, excluding the primary coverage and the special edition of COUNTDOWN they aired on Wednesday with day after, primary analysis.

Just a side note – Fox News did air a Republican Debate Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008. It came in ranking 5th of all debates since April, 2007 and affected regular program performance on CNN and MSNBC.

NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY COVERAGE, TUESDAY, Jan. 8,2007:
Primetime 8P-11PM; Adults 25-54 and Total Audience 2+: ^
Fox News: 901,000 3,068,000
CNN: 1,358,00 3,298,000
MSNBC: 701,000 ` 1,441,000

Yes, CNN took primetime by excellent margins this night. CNN outdelivered Fox News’s Adults 25-54 audience by 51% and MSNBC’s by 94%. In Total Audience 2+, CNN beat Fox News by +7% and beat MSNBC by +17%. Well done, but I’m not saying the phrase that “shall not be named”….we’ve heard it enough, and it’s only January.

CNN was live until 1AM and also soundly beat FOX News in re-run at 11PM and 12MD in both audiences and also beat MSNBC at 11PM and 12MD even though they were live – also by substantial amount of viewers.

CNN also had the strongest audience delivery in other demographics 8PM – 1AM for Adults 18-34 and Adults 18-49. These are not demographics which are news programming strength, so to be posting strong performances with these ages shows the interest and appeal of the night.

*4 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary audience.
**4 night time period average; excludes Tuesday Primary audience.
***3 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary and Thursday Debate audience.
+ 3 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary; does not air (DNA) Fridays.
++ 4 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary.
#3 night program average; excludes Tuesday Primary and special COUNTDOWN on Wednesday.
^Courtesy, Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 and Total Audience 2+, Live + Same Day (LS), Fast Track Nationals.


Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll see you next week. Yes, ratings analysis is just going to get more complicated as channels schedule more debates and primary coverage – but it is fresh programming in the midst of a writer’s strike and cable is benefiting.
~ RATINGS GURU

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

A visit from the Ratings Guru

Just another average week in primetime cable news

Dec. 10-14, 2007 (if we don’t count Friday…Whew…

Let’s be realistic – cable news audiences are pretty small. Even the leader Bill O’Reilly only translates on his best days to a 2 Household Rating in the broadcast world, and that is for 2+ with a tremendous amount of audience 55+ (advertisers typically don’t want that audience…sorry). The political race as well as some news events have started to make a difference as the broadcast network news programs have had some of their highest audience levels all year in the past three weeks. Since viewers expect that kind of coverage in cable news, it really hasn’t translated directly into the cable news increases in those same last weeks – other than when an evening debate airs.

What was very interesting is that Fox News took top honors in the airing of the final Republican debate last week during the day and CNN led the next day with the Democratic debate with the same moderator. Was it a fair contest? Somewhat. For the democratic debate (Thursday), MSNBC was carrying the Major League Baseball Drug Enhancement press conference but aired the debate an hour later and came in with slightly less audience than they had with the Republican debate the day before. I know, read and go blind…but it is good that CNN beat Fox News in 2+, regardless of programming and time period competition.

I won’t give you percent increases or decreases because the prior week had so many program changes and disruptions to the regular program sked. Interestingly, ESPN’s football on Monday night is usually a factor in hurting news viewership, wasn’t last week – so much for the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. Monday cable news performances were fairly good, but nothing that translates the loss of over 4 million viewers to Monday Night Football on ESPN.

So let’s look at last week:^

8PM:
Fox News: 436,000
CNN: 235,000
MSNBC: 257,000

Viewers turned out all channels on Friday, hurting everyone’s week average – Christmas parties or shopping??? Billo was down -12% from the prior week as his program was the least affected by program changes. And as typical, his weakest night was Friday. OUT IN THE OPEN had a pretty up week until they hit Friday and lost almost 100,000 viewers from the previous days of last week. I can’t compare it to prior week because that week it only aired three times. COUNTDOWN on MSNBC also hit the skids on Friday, 100,000 viewers off from peak audiences on Monday and Thursday.

9PM:
Fox News: 389,000
CNN: 266,000
MSNBC: 173,000*

Hannity & Colmes were up slightly from the week before, LKL was down slightly - again, repeats and program interruptions affected the performance the week prior to last week – but this past Friday night was just a ratings killer for the talk-master – his Christmas song show was anywhere from 150 to 200,000 viewers OFF of his Monday – Thursday performances. Not much love out there for Josh Groban, et all – YIKES! Even LKL’s repeat of Brad Pitt in New Orleans did extremely well on Tuesday. Dan Abrams bounced back from the week prior, but again, only airs on four days.

10PM:
Fox News: 364,000
CNN: 241,000
MSNBC: 193,000

Yes, AC360 is down last week from the week before (CNN HEROES week when it only aired three times). Back for a full five days, it was the Friday performance that just killed the week average – averaging 100,000 viewers off from Monday – Thursday’s performances. People just deserted television on Friday night, but the cable news channels really suffered. And with virtually no decent lead-in from LKL’s Christmas program, 360 delivered the same audience as its lead-in, which is great, but the ratings performance was extremely sub-par (146,000 viewers – ouch...). This, unfortunately, was the night CNN decided to run the 60 Minutes piece on the endangered MOUNTAIN GORILLAS. Maybe with the promotion – and that 60 MINUTES had delivered such a huge audience the prior Sunday, viewers tuned out. The four day average without the 360 Friday program would have been 265,000 – but no one in the industry would accept eliminating a first run program from the average – it was a legit program night. MSNBC’s investigations/doc block was up over the week before, but had audience erosion with each night this past week.

And to answer an anticipated question – were the broadcast networks down over typical Friday night ratings performance too? Nope, not really. They were in repeats and certainly down from the November Sweeps – but not that much.

We’ll see you next week – and let me know if you have any questions.
RATINGS GURU

*4 day average applied to 5 days; Dan Abrams only airs 4 days.
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 LIVE + SAME DAY (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

Way to Go Candy,the Ratings Guru and Sad News

Happy Birthday to Tom Foreman!

Have you heard George W. call Candy Crowley his good friend. Wow, I bet that sent shivers down her spine. He blamed her for infecting him with a virus in 2000? Way to go Candy!

From ABC, 12/4

THERE ARE SOME WEEKS WHEN RESEARCHERS JUST WANT TO ANALYZE THE AUDIENCE AND LEAVE THE COMMENTING TO OTHERS

WOW! There was a flurry of opinions, commentary and criticism flying around worse than a snowstorm in Minneapolis. Luckily us researchers can just look at the audience figures and just leave it at that. You can decide with the programming presented what you think – it’s a free country and we are all entitled to our opinions. Some just “blast” theirs louder than others (like all my winter references?…just a short guess where I was last week..).

Last week was coming out of the holiday week, so there is no reason to compare this past week’s performance to the previous. It wouldn’t make any sense from a comparison standpoint, or how the industry would look at the time periods and cable competition. But unlike the Thanksgiving week, all anchors/commentators were back in action on the big three cable news outlets.

CNN once again had the strongest night on Wednesday when the Republican Debate aired from Florida. It out performed the CNN democratic debate on November 15 by 8% in total viewers and 24% in the key demographic advertising is based on – Adults 25-54. Granted, with the promotion and the “twist” on the debate being “YouTube,” CNN outperformed itself in all audience demographics from the previous debate Nov. 15, 2007. What was really encouraging was the major up tick with Adults 18-34 – 516,000 watched the debate and it was very well balanced – it had a very competitive audience under 50+ so that it wasn’t so top-heavy in Adults 50+ (advertisers aren’t keen for very old skewing programs..). So far in 2007, CNN has the top two performing debates and three out of the top five...not bad! You have seen CNN and other media sources combine the audience of the debate performance as well as its repeat audience, but we don’t do that here. It is called “cuming” an audience. It is typical in cable, but if one wants to know a true first run, first broadcast performance – how the industry measures its competitiveness, we don’t base our evaluation on cume. It can be looked at, but in comparing debate versus other debates, it is the first broadcast that is ranked – not a combined audience number of all of its broadcasts. There are a whole bunch of reasons why the industry does and doesn’t value cume, but I don’t need to get into that here. Suffice it to say, CNN did very, very well.

So let’s get into the week.^

8PM:
Fox News: 491,000
CNN: 199,000*
MSNBC: 293,000

Interestingly, COUNTDOWN performed well against the debate, but Billo didn’t. Humm…audience on Fox News tuned in the debate, but they didn’t in such numbers from MSNBC…does it say something about the political affiliations of the channels?...I’m Just Askin’… OUT IN THE OPEN’S strongest night before it was pre-empted by the debate was Tuesday. Tuesday was also a big night for COUNTDOWN and Bill O’Reilly, so that means television Homes Using Television (HUTS) must have been very high that night. Clearly the debate is NOT averaged in as part of OUT IN THE OPEN, but the added addition of AC360 on Friday night was a good night for the time period and not all that different from what OPEN normally does. With late-breaking news, viewers tuned in, but not enough for it to be the strongest night for OPEN. Interestingly, with the news on Friday of the New Hampshire hostage taking, Bill O’Reilly’s ratings still had the typical Friday downturn. Viewers seemed to stay with CNN and MSNBC.

9PM:
Fox News: 352,000
CNN: 225,000**
MSNBC: 129,000

No great changes here although LKL had a very up and down week. Monday was the strongest with Thursday being a very weak night and Friday ever so slightly bouncing back. Even Hannity & Colmes didn’t dramatically suffer on debate night. Dan Abrams actually had a dismal week with Monday and Thursday being extremely weak in addition to a disaster performance on debate night. This is a week Mr. Abrams wants to write off.

10PM:
Fox News: 369,000
CNN: 391,000
MSNBC: 161,000

Ahh, yes, CNN once again coded its after-debate analysis led by Anderson Cooper as an AC360, which once again allowed it to beat GRETA for the week. Is it fair? Well, if they code it that way for Nielsen, we have the right to use it in the program’s week average. Were there other AC360 highlights? Yes, Friday’s program was the strongest program in CNN’s 8-11PM block, so we can say it was the #1 program for CNN in prime that night. It beat MSNBC’s “doc block” which sometimes it doesn’t do on Fridays – but we had increased interest out of New Hampshire trumping a crime block. AC360 did not beat GRETA Friday, but that is tough. She increases audience from her lead-in and that is something to say in cable news/information programming. Thursday is another night CNN would like to forget – even HEADLINE NEWS beat regular CNN on Thursday throughout the whole 8-11PM block, including 360.

So CNN’s strongest program for the week – AC360 with a big thanks to the debate analysis. And, oh yes, the November sweeps ended at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, November 28 – the date of the debate? Coincidence?? I’m Just Askin’….

See you next week!
Ratings Guru

*4 day average applied to five days because of debate programming.
**4 day average applied to five days because of debate programming.
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Adults 25-54 LIVE + SAME DAY (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

We've got some sad news to report to ATC readers. Our long time friend and blogger, Purple Tie, is leaving the blog. There are no words for how much I am going to miss my blogging buddy. So I decided to post a picture of where she got her name, along with her letter to all of you.



Dear ATC readers:

Unfortunately, I have to leave the blog due to some personal issues in my life. I appreciate all the wonderful people here and I will miss you more than I can say. I wish everyone good luck and a Happy Holiday.

Purple Tie