CNN fired on all cylinders as the miners were rescued in West Virginia tonight. The network was first with the breaking news. Anderson Cooper heard cheers and church bells from the Sago Baptist Church, and the network had a camera outside the church where people were heard screaming “12 alive, 12 alive.”

At 12:05am, an e-mailer said CNN was performing very well: “Their cameras are in great positions. They are getting interviews with family members and are quite aggressive. In contrast, Fox is showing a boring room where an upcoming news conference is to take place while their anchor anchors from New York.”

Correspondent Randi Kaye‘s reporting was notable. Her crew seemed to be working wirelessly: Kaye walked around the staging area and immediately interviewed family members outside the church. (A bystander shoved the cameraman out of the way at one point.)

The difference between CNN and the other cable news networks was stark. For example, as the first ambulance left the mine, a producer alerted Cooper that the ambulance was five minutes away from his location. A few minutes later, the network had two camera angles as it passed by. Cooper said the ambulance was heading to the hospital, and turned to Dr. Sanjay Gupta for analysis. In contrast, FNC didn’t seem aware that the ambulance had left, and MSNBC relied on a correspondent to pass along the news via phone.

> HLN’s Erica Hill and Mike Galanos anchored a live update of Prime News Tonight at midnight. Around 1:15am, HLN started simulcasting CNN/U.S. CNN Pipeline also simulcasted CNN/U.S. for a time after midnight.