Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” has been No. 1 in cable news among total viewers at 8 p.m. ET for 183 consecutive months, dating back to December 2000.
For the month of February, a series of debates and town halls pushed CNN past Fox News in prime time among the key demographic of adults age 25-54. But six highly-rated political events couldn’t even push CNN past Bill O’Reilly.
O’Reilly was FNC’s only prime-time hour to beat CNN in both total viewers and the key demo in February. Additionally, the only days that “The O’Reilly Factor” did not hit at least 3 million in total viewers were both guest hosted by Eric Bolling. Bolling actually hosted an entire week in Feb. and the “Factor” still kept its streak intact.
“The O’Reilly Factor” beat CNN and MSNBC combined in both categories, averaging 3.2 million in total viewers and 539,000 in the key demo. O’Reilly is so popular that the late-night replay of his show averaged more total viewers than any first-edition show on CNN or MSNBC.