NK Missile Launch: Cable Ratings Recap

CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of the North Korean missile launches helped the network beat Fox News Channel all evening in the advertiser-friendly 25-54 demographic Tuesday.

FNC still delivered more total viewers than CNN, expect at 9pm, when a live edition of Larry King topped a taped Hannity & Colmes. MSNBC, with taped programming, was a distant third.

When the news broke at 4pm, FNC averaged 323,000 demo and 1,033,000 total viewers. CNN averaged 277,000 demo and 713,000 total. MSNBC averaged 189,000 demo and 305,000 total.

At 5pm, FNC averaged 390,000 demo and 1,286,000 total and CNN averaged 236,000 demo and 974,000 total. Viewers turned off MSNBC as they looked for missile news: The simulcast of an NBC News Special Report from 5 to 5:04pm delivered 245,000 demo and 305,000 total viewers, but the rest of the hour (a taped City in Fear episode) delivered just 117,000 demo and 179,000 total viewers.

From 6 to 11pm, CNN beat FNC in the demo, by a pretty wide margin at some points. Here’s the scoreboard.

> Also: Compared to the same day last year: FNC was down in all categories, CNN was up in all categories, and MSNBC was up in total day but down in primetime…

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