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Obama Scandals Bring MSNBC 7-Year Low While Fox News Rises

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday May 20, 2013 @ 4:44pm PDTTags: Barack Obama, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TV Ratings

MSNBCThe scandals of the Obama administration seem to be hurting not just the White House but MSNBC as well, while Fox News Channel has just scored its second-best week of the year. After double-digit gains during last year’s presidential election, May 13-17 saw the progressive-aligned “Lean Forward” news network hit new lows as the IRS scandal erupted and revelations that the Justice Department secretly obtained AP records became public. With 350,000 viewers on average and 94,000 in the adults 25-54 demo, MSNBC had its least-watched and lowest-rated total-day results of the year last week. That was also the lowest total-day demo result the network has had since the week of June 26-July 2, 2006, when MSNBC pulled in just 83,000 viewers among adults 25-54, according to Nielsen data.

Related: Fox News Tops 2012 Cable News Network Ratings; MSNBC Up
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Fox News Reupps Megyn Kelly & Greta Van Susteren; New Gigs Next?

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday May 7, 2013 @ 3:31pm PDTTags: Fox News Channel, Greta Van Susteren, Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren are both going to be at Fox News Channel for a while but it may not be in their present time slots. Both the America Live and the On The Record … Read More »

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Fox Tops April Cable News Ratings While CNN Posts Big Gains

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday April 30, 2013 @ 11:34am PDTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TV Ratings

Fox News Channel finished in first place in April’s cable news ratings, but 2013 still looks a lot better to CNN than April 2012. A year ago, CNN was in third place with its lowest-rated month in total day in more than a decade and its worst primetime in almost two years. This month, fueled by extended coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings and the Texas fertilizer warehouse explosion, CNN saw double-digit viewership growth and triple-digit upward turns in the key adults 25-54 demographic. As a result, the Jeff Zucker-run network moved up to second place ahead of MSNBC in viewership and the demo for the first time in a year, posting its best results since the November 2012 elections. CNN’s sister network HLN actually slipped ahead of MSNBC in the demo too for Total Day with 142,000 viewers. Here’s the big three rankings:

TOTAL DAY — APRIL 2013 VS. APRIL 2012
FNC: 1,233M total viewers – Up 14% (278,000 in 25-54 – Up 2%)
CNN: 638,000 total viewers – Up 79% (228,000 in 25-54 – Up 111%)
MSNBC: 406,000 total viewers – Down 4% (139,000 in 25-54 – Up 1%)

PRIMETIME – APRIL 2013 VS. APRIL 2012
FNC: 2.016M total viewers – Up 9% (389,000 in 25-54 – Down 2%)
CNN: 918,000 total viewers – Up 81% (338,000 in 25-54 – Up 127%)
MSNBC: 682,000 total viewers – Down 10% (234,000 in 25-54 – Down 1%)

Having beat usual top dog USA Network and top all of cable for the week of April 15-21, Fox News finished second in primetime for the month. The News Corp-owned network last reached that spot in March 2011 during the Japan earthquake and tsunami. CNN was No. 17 in the total cable ranking, with MSNBC No. 27. Read More »

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Fox News Tops All Cable For 1st Time Since 2005

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday April 23, 2013 @ 8:37am PDTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, TV Ratings, USA Network

Fox News Channel’s coverage of the bombing at the Boston Marathon last week propelled the network to the top of the cable rankings for the first time in nearly a decade. In both total day and primetime for the week of April 15-April 21, the News Corp-owned news network pulled ahead of usually top-ranked USA Network. Excluding election coverage last year, the last time Fox News was in the top position was August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. In primetime, FNC garnered 2.874 million viewers on average for the week compared with No. 2 USA’s 2.621 million. CNN also climbed the cable ladder to finish No. 3 with 1.985 million viewers overall on average. History Channel was in fourth with 1.937 million viewers and A&E was fifth with 1.928 million.

Related: Fox News Tops Viewership in Boston Manhunt Capture; CNN No. 1 In Demo Read More »

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Fox News Tops Viewership In Boston Manhunt Capture; CNN No. 1 In Demo

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday April 22, 2013 @ 8:11am PDTTags: Boston manhunt, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TV Ratings

Over half a million more viewers Friday night tuned to Fox News Channel over CNN as news broke that the manhunt for the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing was over. In the 7 PM ET hour, Fox News was number one among cable news networks with 5.748 million viewers compared to CNN’s 5.195 million. However, the Jeff Zucker-run network bested the News Corp-owned FNC in the key adults 25-54 demographic during the crucial hour Friday; CNN had 2.322 million in the demo to FNC’s 1.574 million. MSNBC was third in viewership and the demo with 1.429 million watching and 459,000 in 25-54. Over the total day, the result in the demo and viewership was the best CNN has done for a non-political event since the 2003 launch of the Iraq War. With the exception of Election Day last year, FNC had its highest rate viewership in both total day and primetime since 2003 also.

Related: BOSTON MANHUNT ENDS: TV’s Live Coverage Read More »

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CNN’s ‘The Point’ Debuts Weak, MSNBC’s ‘All In’ Starts Strong; Fox News Tops Quarter But Sees Demo Decline

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday April 2, 2013 @ 4:38pm PDTTags: (Get To) The Point, All In, Chris Hayes, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, MSNBC. Chris Hayes, TV Ratings

April Fool’s Day saw two cable news networks debuting shows – though one likely isn’t laughing very much and MSNBC’s All In hosted by Chris Hayes is probably very happy. With little promotion and announced just hours before its debut on Monday, the 10 PM premiere on CNN of (Get To) The Point saw a sharp drop from the Anderson Cooper 360 repeat that usually sits in the time slot. The second new show of the Jeff Zucker regime, The Point pulled in 278,000 total viewers and 80,000 in the Adult 25-54 demo. Intended right now to run for just one week, the panel show was down 45% from the AC360 encore in total audience from the same day last year and off 52% in the demographic. It was third in viewership and demo on the slot behind Fox News Channel’s On The Record With Greta Van Susteren and MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell. In fact, last night’s The Point was the lowest rated show in CNN’s 10 PM ET slot in both total viewers and the demo all year.

Related:
CNN’s ‘The Lead With Jake Tapper’ Hits Demo Low
Karen Finney Gets Weekend MSNBC Show
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Tucker Carlson To Host Fox News Morning Show

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday March 27, 2013 @ 10:07am PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Fox News Channel, Tucker Carlson

Tucker CarlsonEXCLUSIVE: Tucker Carlson is about to get up a lot earlier on Saturdays and Sundays. Fox News Channel is expected to announce, I have learned, that Carlson will be joining morning show Fox … Read More »

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Bad News For Network And Local TV News

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Sunday March 17, 2013 @ 9:01pm PDTTags: ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NBC News, Pew Research Center, TV News

If you care about news, then the Pew Research Center’s latest annual State Of The News Media report will make you want to cry. Providers across all platforms became “more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into [their] hands,” Pew’s Project for Excellence In Journalism finds. The shortcomings stood out during the election when “campaign reporters were acting primarily as megaphones, rather than as investigators, of the assertions put forward by the candidates and other political partisans.”

Even in a year with an exciting presidential election the collective audience for ABC, CBS and NBC’s evening newscasts fell 2% to 22.1M “resuming the downward trajectory of nearly three decades” after an uptick in 2011. Total audience for local TV newscasts — the nation’s #1 news source – shrank last year in all key time slots except for early morning and across stations aligned with all the networks, resuming a downward trend that seemed to have ended in 2011. Viewing of the evening newscasts that aired between 5:00 and 7:00 PM at the major network affiliates fell 7% last year. One reason: young people are tuning out. About 28% of adults under 30 regularly watched local news last year, down from 42% in 2006. Local news devoted 40% of air time to sports, weather, and traffic, up from 32% in 2005. And just 20% of the stories last year ran at least a minute, down from 31% a decade ago. Read More »

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Fox Tops Pope Ratings On Cable News Networks

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday March 14, 2013 @ 2:22pm PDTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, HLN, MSNBC, TV Ratings

Fox News Channel got the ratings blessing yesterday for its coverage of the announcement of the new Pope. In the critical 11 AM-1 PM PT time period, the News Corp-owned cable news network drew an average of 2.232 million viewers. CNN was second with 1.497 million watching, CNN sister station Headline News was third with 913,000, and MSNBC was fourth with 597,000. During the two-hour block, the election of the Catholic Church’s 266th Pontiff was announced, and former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio appeared to address a huge cheering crowd amassed at the Vatican.

While the viewership spread was 735,000 between Fox News and CNN, the demographic difference was much tighter. FNC pulled in 443,000 on average in the adults 25-54 demo during the time period, while CNN got 420,000. HLN garnered 315,000, and MSNBC got 142,000. All the cable news networks saw double-digit rises over their usual viewership for the time period. For total-day viewership Wednesday, Fox News beat CNN and MSNBC combined. The news network had 1.367 million viewers (239,000 in 25-54) compared to rivals CNN (573,000 viewers, 173,000 in 25-54) and MSNBC (498,000, (138,000 in 25-54). White smoke emerged from the Vatican smokestack just after 11 AM PT/2 PM ET on Wednesday The freshly named Francis I came out on the balcony just after noon. Having been in Rome all week doing their nightly new shows, ABC, NBC and CBS all cut into regularly scheduled programming when the white smoke appeared.
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Rupert Murdoch Bullish On Jeff Zucker As CNN Chief

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday March 8, 2013 @ 11:50am PSTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, Jeff Zucker, Rupert Murdoch

With Fox News Channel still topping the cable news universe, Rupert Murdoch is feeling magnanimous about the competition. In an interview with WSJ Live, the News Corp chief said he thinks new CNN Worldwide President … Read More »

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One Month Into Zucker’s Reign, CNN Sees Ratings Dip; All Cable News Down From 2012

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday February 26, 2013 @ 1:49pm PSTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, Jeff Zucker, MSNBC, TV Ratings

Looks like wall-to-wall crippled cruise ship coverage wasn’t enough to get CNN off rough ratings seas. One full month since Jeff Zucker officially took over the cable news network, CNN saw a 5% dip in total day viewers and a 1% slip in primetime viewership in February as compared to January. Fox News Channel won February among cable news networks in terms of total day and primetime viewership with MSNBC coming in second and CNN in third. Last year, CNN was in second place after Fox. Also, despite the sharp bump the network got from its widely mocked expansive February 14 coverage of the Carnival Triumph’s tug to port, CNN saw a 4% slip this month in the Adults 25-54 demographic in both total day and primetime compared to January. Former NBC Universal exec Zucker formally stepped into his job as president CNN Worldwide on January 20 as the network was deep in political reporting and soon topped its rivals in Inauguration coverage. If those month-to-month figures are down, the year-to-year are down more. CNN fell 10% in total day viewership and 18% in primetime viewership from last February to an average audience of 424,000 during the day and 659,000 between 8 PM and 11 PM. The network was also down in the 25-54 demo from last year, falling 20% in total day and 32% in primetime.

Related: Fox News Tops 2012 Cable News Network Ratings; MSNBC Up
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Mocking Aside, CNN Gets Ratings Hoist From Cruise Ship Coverage

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday February 15, 2013 @ 2:38pm PSTTags: CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TV Ratings

CNN’s all-day coverage of the crippled Carnival Triumph’s slow return to port may have attracted a lot of scorn from Jon Stewart and Joe Scarborough, but it pulled in a hefty number of viewers too. Focusing on the powerless cruise ship’s tug into Mobile, Ala, the cable news network saw a 43% boost in total day viewership from last Thursday. That rise to 565,000 from 395,000 also gave CNN a 54% jump in the adults 25-54 demo over the same day last week.

Related: CNN Sinks To 21-Year Primetime Ratings Low In Second Quarter Read More »

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Fox News Hires Herman Cain

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday February 15, 2013 @ 8:23am PSTTags: Fox News Channel, Herman Cain

Fox News Channel has added Herman Cain as a contributor. The former National Restaurant Association CEO, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, will join other recent additions to the cable news network … Read More »

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UPDATE: State of The Union Viewership Drops 11% From 2012; NBC, Fox News Lead

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday February 13, 2013 @ 3:10pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, Fox News Channel, NBC, TV Ratings

UPDATE, 3:10 PM: The first State of the Union of President Obama’s second term last night was watched by 33.5 million viewers. That’s down 11.3% from the 37.75 million who tuned in for last year’s address across 14 broadcast and cable networks. It’s also a State of the Union low for Obama, who has seen a decline every year since his first official SOTU in 2010 was watched by 48 million. It is not an all-time low since Nielsen started tracking SOTUs in 1993; that goes to Bill Clinton’s 2000 State of the Union when the he was in the last year of his administration — that speech got just 31.478 million. This year’s speech was live from around 9-10:15 PM ET on 15 networks and tape-delayed on Univision. NBC was tops among broadcast networks with 6.469 million total viewers, just ahead of the 6.4 million CBS pulled in. With 3.683 million watching, Fox News Channel was No. 1 among cable news’ coverage of last night’s speech. However, CNN won in the key adults 25-54 demographic with 1.436 million. Fox News’ total viewership dipped 3% from last year. Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Azteca, Univision, MundoFox, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Current, Centric and Galavision all carried the speech live last night. Read More »

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Fox News Hires Former Senator Scott Brown As Contributor

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday February 13, 2013 @ 10:45am PSTTags: Fox News Channel

Just more than three months after he lost his Massachusetts Senate seat, Scott Brown will be joining Fox News Channel as a contributor, the cable network said today. “Senator Brown’s dedication to out-of-the box thinking on … Read More »

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Networks Juggle State Of The Union & Cop Killer Standoff, But No Split Screen Tonight

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday February 12, 2013 @ 7:21pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC

In the end, the State of the Union was the story of the night on television, not rogue LA cop Christopher Dorner. Despite reporting on the story of the Big Bear gun battle standoff between Dorner and police up until the last minute, none of the broadcast nor cable news networks ended up using a split screen to show President Obama’s speech and the Dorner case. The only time the Dorner story appeared on screen during the State of the Union was around 6:56 PM, when local LA station KABC put on a crawl announcing a body had been found that was believed to be that of Dorner. Up for barely a minute, the Breaking News crawl told viewers to go to the station’s website for more information or wait for a news special after the State of the Union. CNN‘s sister station HLN remained on the Dorner story throughout the State of the Union with coverage from CNN’s Anderson Cooper and HLN host Nancy Grace. At 6:59 PM, HLN announced that Dorner’s body had been found in a burned-out cabin though LAPD and other police have not confirmed. Obama spoke for just over an hour tonight in the first State of the Union of his second term. Read More »

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UPDATE: Dick Morris Says Fox News Fired Him “For Being Wrong”

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday February 6, 2013 @ 6:25pm PSTTags: Dick Morris, Fox News Channel

UPDATE, 6:28 PM: One day after having his contract not renewed by Fox News Channel, Dick Morris says it was his bad political judgment that got him canned. “I was fired because I was wrong. I was wrong and I was wrong at the top of my lungs,” … Read More »

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Sarah Palin Leaves Fox News

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday January 25, 2013 @ 2:49pm PSTTags: Fox News Channel, Sarah Palin

The former Republican Vice Presidential candidate will no longer be on Fox News Channel, the network confirmed today. “We have thoroughly enjoyed our association with Governor Palin. We wish her the best in her future endeavors,” FNC Programming EVP Bill Shine said in a statement. Sarah Palin has been a frequent contributor to Fox News since 2009.

Not only did the News Corp-owned network reportedly pay Palin more than $1 million a year, but FNC even built a studio in her Wasilla home so the former Alaska governor could work from there. However, the relationship was not always ruffle-free. On August 29 last year, Palin took to her Facebook page to complain about FNC removing her as a talking head for the network’s GOP convention coverage. Fox News said later it was a scheduling issue and not a slight. Palin showed up on Sean Hannity’s show the next night. Read More »

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UPDATE: Inauguration Viewership Down Almost 50% From 2009; 20.5M Watch Swearing In

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday January 23, 2013 @ 9:45am PSTTags: Barack Obama, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC

UPDATE, 9:45 AM: President Obama’s second inauguration pulled in almost half the viewership that watched his 2009 swearing-in. Monday’s ceremony and celebrations drew 20.552 million viewers overall between 10 AM and 4:30 PM for a 7.1 rating, accord to Nielsen data released today. The January 20, 2009 inauguration had 37.793 million watching over almost the same time period — good for a 13.2 rating. This year’s inaugural was broadcast, in various forms, by ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, Telemundo, AZTECA, MundoFox, PBS, Fox News Channel, CNN Headline News, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, TV One, CNN, Current TV, CNBC, CENTRIC and BET. Read More »

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