MSNBC Touts Yearly Demo Win Over CNN

It appears MSNBC is reacting to CNN’s early numbers release with their own news. This Nielsen data is current up to Sunday, Dec. 13:

For the first time ever, MSNBC finished the year ahead of CNN in primetime among A25-54, beating them in M-F (307,000 vs. 297,000) and M-Su (280,000 vs. 268,000). MSNBC was the #1 news network among younger adults, 18-34 in primetime, M-Su (100,000). CNN is on pace to finish 4Q09 in 4th place for the first time ever in A25-54 in M-F primetime (FNC: 699,000; MSNBC: 248,000; HLN: 222,000; CNN: 208,000).

“Countdown with Keith Olbermann” finishes the year in second place in the 8pmET hour behind “The O’Reilly Factor.” MSNBC beat CNN in the hour by 57% in A25-54 viewers (360,000 vs. 230,000) and by 42% in Total Viewers (1,166,000 vs. 823,000).

“The Rachel Maddow Show” had the most growth of any cable news show in the 9pmET hour among Total Viewers, up 15% from 2008 (1,023,000 vs. 888,000) and up 127% from 2007 (450,000). Maddow comes in third behind “Hannity” and “Larry King Live,” with Maddow losing to King by 3,000 A25-54 viewers.

Of course, the year’s not over yet. Again, we’ll bring you final, final 2009 ratings later this month.

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