Archives: March 2010

HLN’s Joy Behar appeared on Jay Leno‘s “Tonight” show last night and had this to say about her appearance on Glenn Beck‘s “I hate Glenn Beck” list: “Glenn, listen I don’t hate you. “Sincerely, Glenn Beck, from the bottom of my heart, I don’t hate you. I don’t give a flying f— about you.”

Fox News Channel continued its dominance in the cable news universe becoming the second most-watched basic cable channel for the first three months of this year, only behind USA Network. FNC also had the top 13 programs in cable news in both Total Viewers and younger viewers.

Below are the program rankings (Total Viewers). After the jump, the top programs in younger viewers as well as the cable network ranker…

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Fox News host Glenn Beck has unveiled his new novel, The Overton Window, which will be published by Threshold Editions (Simon & Schuster) this summer. GalleyCat has the details.

25-54 demographic: (L +SD)

Total day: FNC: 415 | CNN: 129 | MSNBC: 145 | HLN: 146

Prime: FNC: 699 | CNN: 173 | MSNBC: 331 | HLN: 159

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Beck:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:
	562	464	458	906	582	590	459
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	Brown:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	139	117	125	135	183	201	124
MSNBC	Matthews:	EdShow:	Matthews:	Olbermann:	Maddow:	Olbermann:	Maddow:
	111	175	227	414	347	232	135
HLN	Showbiz:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Behar:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	87	131	163	213	115	156	190

Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

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In the first quarter of 2010, Fox News drew its largest total day audience averages for any quarter in the network’s nearly 14 year history; its second largest in primetime.

Total day (Mon-Sun): 1.30M Total / 354K A25-54
Prime (Mon-Sun): 2.32M Total / 594K A25-54

FNC was the only network to show growth in each ratings category and, for the second consecutive quarter, FNC programs were the top 13 in cable news in Total Viewers. FNC also had the top 13 programs in the demo this quarter. Every FNC program was up against Q1 of ’09.

Two evening news programs, “Special Report with Bret Baier” (2.46M total/541k demo) and “Fox Report with Shepard Smith” (2.11M total/526k demo), each had their best quarters ever. Those programs saw a benefit from FNC’s 5pm program hosted by Glenn Beck which saw the largest year-to-year increases of all shows in the demo (up +50%). Greta Van Susteren and Bill O’Reilly were both up more than +20% in the demo compared to Q1 of ’09.

Fox News was the #2 basic cable network in primetime and averaged more Total Viewers in primetime and total day than CNN, MSNBC, and HLN combined.

MSNBC saw viewership decreases in Q1 compared to last year, but continued to outperform CNN in primetime and, for the first time, drew more viewers in the morning.

Total day (Mon-Sun): 396K Total / 136K A25-54
Prime (Mon-Sun): 805K Total / 269K A25-54

For the first time ever, “Morning Joe” pulled into second place among the cable morning shows in Total Viewers in March and in Q1, topping CNN’s “American Morning” and HLN’s “Morning Express.” “Morning Joe” averaged 355K Total Viewers for Q1 and 374K in March.

All MSNBC programming was down double digits compared to Q1 of ’09. Monday to Sunday, MSNBC’s primetime for the quarter was down -15% in Total Viewers compared to Q1 of ’09 (-22% demo). “Countdown” was down -26% in Total Viewers (-42% demo), and “Rachel Maddow” was down -25% (-38% demo).

But in Q1 and in March, “Countdown [without Keith Olbermann]” and Rachel Maddow drew larger audiences than their CNN competition. MSNBC also topped CNN in the total day demo for the month of March, a first since August of 2001.

Press release after the jump…

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CNN saw the largest across-the-board decreases of any cable network in Q1 compared to last year, though the network did improve over the final quarter of 2009.

Total day (Mon-Sun): 507K Total / 149K A25-54
Prime (Mon-Sun): 690K Total / 200K A25-54

Year-to-year, CNN was down -39% in primetime Total Viewers (-42% in the demo).

In Q1 total day, CNN was down -31% in Total Viewers (-37% demo), but remains the number two network ahead of MSNBC and well behind Fox News. For the month of March, MSNBC pulled ahead of CNN in the demo.

The NYTimes’ Bill Carter writes today, “CNN had a slightly worse quarter in the fourth quarter of 2009, but the last three months have included compelling news events, like the earthquake in Haiti and the battle over health care, and CNN, which emphasizes its hard news coverage, was apparently unable to benefit.”

Campbell Brown and Larry King had their lowest rated quarters ever in Total Viewers and King also had his worst in the A25-54 demo. Anderson Cooper was also down — more than -40% in Total Viewers and the demo.

“Rick’s List,” which launched in January, is down -42% in Total Viewers (-49% demo) compared to the same time slot in Q1 of last year, but is besting “MSNBC Live” and “Dylan Ratigan” on MSNBC in Total Viewers and the demo.

In CNN’s release after the jump, the network points to its month-to-month primetime growth in March.

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While HLN lost viewers from Q1 2009, it was the best quarter ever for the network’s 9pmET hour.

First, here are HLN’s Q1 ’10 averages:

Total day (Mon-Sun): 300K Total / 132K A25-54
Prime (Mon-Sun): 496K Total / 162K A25-54

In March “Joy Behar,” was up +26% compared to last year’s 9pmET show, a re-air of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” and Q1 ’10 was the best quarter ever for the 9pmET hour on HLN

“Morning Express” had its best quarter ever in the demo, averaging 187K A25-54 viewers.

Overall, HLN was down -24% in primetime Total viewership compared to Q1 of ’09 (-40% demo), and down -9% in total day viewership (-13% demo). Release after the jump.

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The first installment of Fox News Channel’s “Real American Stories” hosted by Sarah Palin airs this Thursday night at 10pmET, preempting “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

The debut episode will include guests ranging from country singer Toby Keith, to rapper and actor LL Cool J, to former GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch. The first show will also feature a Marine Medal of Honor recipient who gave his live to save his comrades and a profile of a wealthy stock broker who donated much of his fortune to underprivileged students so they can attend college.

The program will re-air Sunday at 9pmET.

Basketball and sharks helped make “60 Minutes” the 5th most-watched show of the week last week. The program brought in 14.49M Total Viewers — its best since January 17. Sunday’s show, which had the Duke-Baylor game as its lead-in, included Steve Kroft‘s profile of Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov and Anderson Cooper‘s report on great white shark expert Mike Rutzen.