Schiavo Boosts Tuesday Cable Ratings; Prime #s Prove Klein’s Lead-In Challenge

CNN chief Jon Klein believes the most critical “toss” on CNN is “the throw from Larry King to Aaron Brown each weeknight just before 10,” the NY Times says today. And Tuesday night’s ratings are an example of the challenge: Larry King averaged 1.5 million viewers, but NewsNight only averaged 847,000. FNC held onto the vast majority of the viewers all evening and kept above the 2 million mark.

Meanwhile, FNC’s total day ratings beat CNN’s primetime #s on Tuesday night. Coverage of the Schiavo case has clearly boosted FNC the most:

Primetime: FNC: 2,291,000 / CNN: 1,015,000 / MSNBC: 406,000 / CNBC: 108,000 / HLN: 292,000

Total day: FNC: 1,063,000 / CNN: 559,000 / MSNBC: 238,000

Here is the individual show data:

FNC: Gibson: 1,191,000 / Hume: 1,426,000 / Shep: 1,604,000 / O’Reilly: 2,566,000 / H&C: 2,206,000 / Greta: 2,101,000

CNN: Cooper 7pm: 625,000 / Cooper 8pm: 670,000 / King: 1,529,000 / NewsNight: 847,000

MSNBC: Hardball: 571,000 / Countdown: 434,000 / Abrams 9pm: 477,000 / Scarborough: 305,000

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