CNN slips to 4th in October, Fox & MSNBC lead ratings

Posted Oct 28, 2009 by Walt Belcher

Updated Oct 28, 2009 at 10:54 AM

Taking a middle-of-the-road, just-the-facts-ma’am approach obviously isn’t working for CNN.

The granddaddy of cable news networks slipped to fourth place in primetime at 7, 8 and 10 p.m. among cable news networks in the key sales demographic (ages 25 to 54) for October, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

Last year, during the presidential election, CNN was riding high. But this year, CNN has slipped more than rivals Fox News and MSNBC have. CNN is down 78 percent compared with October 2008.

It should be noted that all the cable news networks are down from October 2008 when the election was hot and heavy and the economy was beginning to take a tumble. MSNBC is down 63 percent in the primetime demo (25-to-54) while Fox News Channel is off 36 percent in 25-to-54 and HLN and CNBC are each down 29 percent.

Fox has positioned itself as the network of choice for conservatives, and MSNBC has become the favorite of liberals.

Fox News remains dominant across all day-parts. In primetime (Mon-Sun, 8-11 p.m.), Fox News averaged 2.1 million viewers with 560,000 in the key demo. MSNBC was second with 699,000 viewers, 234,000 in the demo, followed by CNN and HLN.

Fox News apparently has benefited from the flap with the White House over President Obama’s strategy to ignore the network. The administration’s battle with Fox News got heavy coverage on Fox last week. The network is up 9 percent in total viewers and up 14 percent in the demo since the feud started three weeks ago.

Fox News also has all 10 of the top 10 shows in cable news in both the demo and total viewers, led by “The O’Reilly Factor” (3.3 million viewers, 875,000 in the demo), Glenn Beck (2.7 million viewers, 712,000 in the demo), Hannity (2.3 million, 659,000 in the demo) and “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren (1.9 million, 533,000 in the demo).

MSNBC notched second place finishes in most of the key week-night prime-time hours. At 7 p.m., “Hardball” with Chris Matthews was second in the time slot averaging 649,000 viewers with 182,000 in the demo. HLN’s “Issues” with Jane Velez-Mitchell out-rated CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” in the demo (168,000 to 163,000) while Dobbs prevailed among total viewers (631,000 to 462,000).

“Fox Report” with Shepard Smith was the most-watched program at 7 p.m., with 1.9 million viewers and 463,000 in the demo.

At 8 p.m., MSNBC’s “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann bested HLN’s Nancy Grace, among total viewers (1 million to 830,000) and the demo (294,000 to 269,000), while CNN’s Campbell Brown was stuck in fourth among total viewers (648,000) and the demo (161,000).

“The O’Reilly Factor” was the top-rated cable news program in the 8 p.m. hour for the 107th consecutive month.

At 9 p.m., MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” bested CNN’s “Larry King Live” in total viewers (880,000 to 842,000) and the demo (246,000 to 224,000). That was enough for a third-place finish for LKL against HLN’s newest entry, “The Joy Behar Show,” which averaged 535,000 total viewers and 183,000 in the demo. Fox News’ Hannity had the top-rated program for the hour.

At 10 p.m., “Anderson Cooper 360” dropped to fourth in the demo (210,000) against reruns of Nancy Grace (222,000) and “Countdown” (218,000).