Archives: May 2006

Maybe it’s time to lay off Anderson Cooper a little bit. His new book, “Dispatches From The Edge,” is a top seller. According to Drudge, Cooper’s book has earned a #1 spot on BookScan, with 37,639 copies scanned in its first week. He beat Tim Russert by 94 copies.

Russert is #2 and Cooper is #3 on the New York Times’ latest bestseller list. And on Amazon.com, the book is currently ranked #5 (up from #7 the day before)…

> Also: Thursday on CNN: Cooper is Larry King‘s guest…

> Update: 9:56pm: “One would guess Cooper’s book took off largely on the fact that Oprah endorsed it so highly by saying she would have chosen it for her book club, if viewers wouldn’t think she was ‘double dipping’ after having him on her show as a guest. Oprah is the kingmaker of books, after all.”

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Here’s a photo gallery of Katie Couric‘s goodbye this morning. All the photos are by the AP’s Richard Drew. Here’s my favorite:

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Memorial Day ratings:

25-54 demographic:

Total day: FNC: 212 | CNN: 151 | MSNBC: 86 | HLN: 84 | CNBC: 50

Prime: FNC: 267 | CNN: 198 | MSNBC: 123 | HLN: 83 | CNBC: 41

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Gibson:	Hume:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	H&C:	Crime:	O’Reilly:
	254	269	222	299	208	293	288
CNN	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Blitzer:	Zahn:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	101	157	153	202	200	192	193
MSNBC	Hardball:	Abrams:	Hardball:	Countdown:	MSNBC Special:
	65	93	101	138	68	162	155
HLN	HLN:	Prime:	Beck:	Grace:	Beck:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	96	40	81	114	72	63	76

Total viewers:

Total day: FNC: 708 | CNN: 390 | MSNBC: 209 | HLN: 193 | CNBC: 89

Prime: FNC: 1,173 | CNN: 609 | MSNBC: 326 | HLN: 226 | CNBC: 80

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Gibson:	Hume:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	H&C:	Crime:	O’Reilly:
	858	1,092	1,004	1,290	1,061	1,169	904
CNN	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Blitzer:	Zahn:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	422	410	519	480	795	553	389
MSNBC	Hardball:	Abrams:	Hardball:	Countdown:	MSNBC Special:
	207	266	351	304	212	463	346
HLN	HLN:	Prime:	Beck:	Grace:	Beck:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	221	128	152	322	170	187	242

Here’s the 25-54 demo program ranker. In May 2006, Fox News had nine of the top ten programs among viewers in the 25-54 demographic. The O’Reilly Factor was #1 and Fox & Friends was #2 “It’s amazing considering it has half the HUT of nighttime shows,” an e-mailer notes.

CNN couldn’t crack the top ten, but CNBC’s “Deal or No Deal” came in at #9. Anderson Cooper was #11. MSNBC’s top demo show was MSNBC Investigates, followed by Hardball and Countdown. Here’s all the data:

> May 2006 25-54 demo ranker (PDF)

Did you know that Shep Smith has the longest running #1 show on FNC — even longer than Bill O’Reilly? The Fox Report has been the #1 cable news show in its timeslot for 64 consecutive months. (O’Reilly has been #1 for 56 consecutive months.)

In May, Shep averaged 1,217,000 total viewers and 290,000 demo viewers, making The Fox Report the #7 show on all of cable at 7pm. The program beat stalwarts like ESPN and Lifetime…

On Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, Russ Mitchell asked Sheila MacVicar about Kimberly Dozier‘s reunion with her parents and boyfriend:

“When Kimberly’s boyfriend Pete walked in to her room in intensive care, spoke to her, Kimberly turned her head towards him, he was able to take one of her hands, feel her squeeze his hand back. Now at that point — Kimberly is sedated, at that point obviously a little more lightly sedated than at other times — she’s responded to her parents, she knows that her family, her boyfriend are here with her in Germany — and Russ, doctors say that is so important in helping her heal.”

Click continued for the full transcript…

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While FNC’s Greta Van Susteren was down in May 2006 compared to the same month in 2005, CNN’s Anderson Cooper has improved his timeslot significantly.

360 averaged 214,000 demo viewers in May. His 10pm to midnight timeslot averaged 140,000 demo viewers a year ago. FNC’s 10 to midnight programming (On The Record and a Factor repeat) averaged 286,000 demo viewers, compared to 330,000 a year ago.

At 10pm, Cooper is up 24 percent in the demo compared to NewsNight’s May 2005 numbers. CNN sent along this slide (PDF) to show Cooper’s 10pm gains. At 11pm, Cooper is up 102 percent in the demo compared to last May’s Lou Dobbs repeat. He is up 40 and 77 percent, at 10 and 11pm respectively, in total viewers.
> Update: Last month, Cooper averaged 198,000 demo viewers. He didn’t come close to April 2006′s NewsNight average…

Total day:

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC	HLN	CNBC
May ’06:	203	141	89	83	65
May ’05:	237	117	79	94	45
% change:	-14%	+21%	+13%	-12%	+44%

Primetime:

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC	HLN	CNBC
May ’06:	264	169	125	98	77
May ’05:	332	179	109	111	71
% change:	-20%	-6%	+15%	-12%	+8%

The previous version of this post included the wrong data. It’s fixed now:

Total day:

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC	HLN	CNBC
May ’06:	762	426	226	193	188
May ’05:	752	367	188	210	134
% change:	+1%	+16%	+20%	-8%	+40%

Primetime:

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC	HLN	CNBC
May ’06:	1,309	686	320	275	163
May ’05:	1,401	610	286	317	141
% change:	-7%	+12%	+12%	-13%	+16%

May 2006 marked Larry King‘s lowest rated performance since May 2001 in the 25-54 demographic. The CNN vet averaged 194,000 demo viewers (and 992,000 total viewers).

Among total viewers, Larry King Live was the #7 show on cable. But among young viewers, the show ranked #16, behind Friday night editions of MSNBC Investigates. In April, King averaged 206,000 demo viewers and 1,073,000 total viewers…