CNN's historic victory on Thursday night was eclipsed as quickly as Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech left the news cycle.

By Friday morning, rumors of Sen. John McCain's surprise pick of Gov. Sarah Palin for VP dominated the cablers coverage, and Fox News benefited. FNC had the highest Total Viewer average in prime time since January 28, for the State of the Union. FNC more than doubled 2nd place CNN in prime time Total Viewers.

During McCain's appearance with Palin in the NoonET hour, FNC averaged 3,859,000 in Total Viewers (CNN had 1,895,000 and MSNBC, broken out from 12:18-12:46pmET, averaged 1,040,000) and 1,176,000 in the A25-54 demo (CNN had 679,000 and MSNBC 349,000).