For the second night in a row, Fox News Channel’s GOP Convention coverage beat not just its cable rivals but the main networks as well. During the 10 -11 PM EDT hour, as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and then Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke to the delegates, Fox News pulled in 7.70 million viewers in total. It had 2.06 million in the key 25-54 demo. In fact, FNC rose 12% in total viewers and 23% among the 35-54 demo Wednesday night during the 10 -11 PM EDT hour when ABC, NBC and CBS were broadcasting the convention live from Tampa. Florida. FNC peaked Wednesday during Rep. Ryan’s acceptance speech. From 10:45 – 11 PM EDT, the network had 8.2 million viewers, 2.3 million of them in 25-54 demo. In contrast, NBC, who won the night among the main networkswith its 10-11:05 PM EDT coverage, had 4.14 million viewers total and 1.49 million in the demo. The other two main networks, whose coverage ran from 10 – 11:07 PM EDT, were far behind. ABC had 2.85 million total viewers and 993,694 in the 25-54. CBS had 2.55 million total viewers and 402,370 in the demo. Fellow cable news channels MSNBC and CNN lagged behind with 1.44 million total viewers and 1.34 million total viewers respectively. CNN had 451,370 in the 25-54 demo, while MSNBC had 402,044. In overall 8 – 11 PM EDT primetime coverage, FNC did better than CNN and MSNBC put together. The News Corp-owned network had 5.84 million total viewers compared to the 1.29 MSNBC had and the 1.11 million CNN drew. Among Adults 25-54, FNC had 1.42 million while MSNBC had 366,743 and CNN had 341,758. In terms of total viewers, all three cable news channels were down last night from their coverage of the comparative night of the 2008 GOP Convention. FNC is down 9%, with MSNBC down 40% and CNN down 73% from their 8 -11 PM EDT coverage on September 3, 2008. Fox’s convention coverage also came out number one among the business networks. Fox Business Network got 190,000 total viewers on average in the 10 – 11 PM EDT hour, with 49,000 viewers in the demo. CNBC got 79,000 total viewers on average with 25,000 in the 25-54 demo.

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