When the stock market plunged yesterday afternoon, CNBC recorded a dramatic boost in viewership.

Between 3 and 5pm, CNBC averaged 183,000 demo viewers, topping both FNC (154,000), CNN (125,000) and MSNBC (92,000).

Jim Cramer had some of its highest viewership ever, with 162,000 demo at 6pm and 154,000 at 11pm.

On The Money averaged 148,000 at 7 and 109,000 at 10.

And Fast Money had its best demo rating ever at 8pm, 151,000, beating Paula Zahn's 113,000...

> Also: CNBC out-rated CNN during market hours (9:30 to 4pm) for the second consecutive day in the demo (146,000 vs. 127,000)...

> Update: 9:38am: In total viewers, CNBC didn't do as well. FNC averaged 901,000 viewers, compared to 581,000 for CNBC. CNN had 540,000 and MSNBC had 263,000...

> Update: 9:48am: An industry observer replies: "What’s next – the Weather Channel claiming victory during a blizzard? The shock here is that they didn’t do BETTER than 581,000 viewers!"