The death of Michael Jackson has been an economic stimulus for cable news networks feeling the decline of Obama-mania in a post-election year.
Everyone from Nancy Grace to Geraldo to Larry King to Keith Olbermann has jumped into a wall-to-wall, flood-the-zone media strategy since the international pop star died on Thursday, June 25.
But for news networks CNN and MSNBC, it has been a temporary help that hasn't altered the basic landscape, where Fox News still reigns supreme.
All three of the main players -- Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC -- bested their viewership average by far with their first day of Jackson coverage less than two weeks ago, but only Fox has managed to retain most of those viewers.
This reflects a growing trend, as Fox has become not only the top-rated cable news network, but also the third most-watched channel in all of cable.
CNN, once the titan of the industry, has recently still drawn the largest audiences for specific events like the 2008 Presidential election, but that has not helped it rival Fox in overall viewership.
With Jackson, CNN surged to the top of the charts on June 25 -- the day of his death -- recording the most total viewers throughout the day and particularly during prime time, according to Nielsen.
Yet, though CNN carried some of this success into the weekend, by the following week it performed the worst of the three networks. It retained just 59 percent of its viewers on Monday and Tuesday, and 38 percent in prime time.
In response to these numbers, a CNN spokesperson said: "CNN experienced the largest ratings increase of any cable news network during the recent breaking news. The networks that didn't attract viewers are obviously seeing less of a decline -- they cannot be satisfied not to have grown as much as CNN."
Miles O'Brien, a former CNN news anchor, had a different take on the situation.
“I think what Fox has probably figured out is that you need to program and you need to program with personalities that people want to listen to even when the world is not falling apart,” O' Brien said. “CNN has historically been a victim of this. It has risen and fallen directly (with) world events.”
And in the wake of Fox’s success with recent event coverage, some even question whether CNN remains the primary destination for breaking news.
If CNN loses that battle, “then CNN has some problems, because that is their wheelhouse,” O’Brien said. “If they lose that then all bets are off.”
CNN's recent performance mirrors what has occurred since the presidential election, as CNN and MSNBC have seen a precipitous decline in ratings while Fox News has remained steady.
With Democrats dominating the White House and Congress, this divide has been most prominent in primetime, where Fox often draws more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined, according to tvbythenumbers.com.
