First Half Cable Ratings: Fox News Has Top 13 Shows

First half sweep first in FNC history; Cooper, Larry and John King struggle; BP disaster has helped CNN

The first half cable ratings are in, and given the recent shakeup at CNN – and Larry King’s hemorrhaging audience — they’re worth diving into, perhaps deeper than normal.

Here are the highlights and lowlights (all numbers via Nielsen):

>> Fox News swept the top 13 shows in both total viewers and the coveted 25-to-54-year-old demographic — the first time Fox has secured a clean sweep in the first half.

>> “The O’Reilly Factor” topped both categories, averaging 3.3 million total viewers a night, 828,000 in the A25-54 demo. (“Factor” repeats ranked eighth in total viewers, seventh in the demo.) Glenn Beck, with 2.42 million average total viewers, 646,000 in the demo, comes in at number two, behind O’Reilly.

>> Larry King averaged 722,000 total viewers during the first half – placing him 17th overall — and 190,000 in the demo.

>> “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” is the only non-FNC show to average more than a million (1,034,000) total viewers. (The show, however, slipped 25 percent in the demo during the second quarter.)

>> Anderson Cooper’s 708,000 total viewer average put him in 19th place, behind FNC, Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Nancy Grace, Larry King and “CNN Tonight.”

>> Despite Cooper’s admirable trips to the Gulf, his show fell 28 percent in total viewers during the second quarter and 25 percent in the demo.

>> CNN’s “John King USA” is struggling at 8:00 p.m., falling 41 percent in total viewers and 35 percent in the demo during the second quarter.

>> “The Joy Behar Show” had biggest bump of any primetime show among total viewers (up 39 percent) during the second quarter.

>> CNN points out that since the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf 10 weeks ago, it is the only cable news network to register growth among adults 25-54 versus the previous 10 weeks, up 15 percent.  (FNC fell 11 percent decline in the demo during that timeframe, while MSNBC dropped 9 percent.)

>> All of the major cable news networks lost viewers in primetime during the second quarter. Top-ranked Fox News slid 10 percent in total viewers (1,902,000) and 9 percent in the demo. MSNBC (758,000) slipped 4 percent in total viewers, 10 percent in the demo. CNN’s total primetime viewer average (594,000) plummeted 31 percent during the second quarter, 28 percent in the demo. HLN (487,000) placed fourth, down 12 percent in total viewers and 23 percent in the demo.

>> They all saw their total day averages slip, too, though CNN was the only cable network to suffer double digit losses (-27 percent total viewers, -19 percent in the demo).

Comments