via NBCU press release:
MORE THAN 18.741 MILLION AMERICANS TURN TO THE NETWORKS OF NBC TO WITNESS
HISTORY BEING MADE
DURING THE KEY 11PM – 1AM TIME PERIOD, MSNBC RANKED #2 AMONG THE CABLE NEWS NETWORKS WITH 6.57 MILLION VIEWERS
MSNBC.COM SHATTERS SITE RECORD WITH NEARLY
250 MILLION PAGE VIEWSNew York, N.Y. – At the culmination of one of the most exciting presidential races of all time, more than 18.741 million Americans turned to the networks of NBC to witness history being made as Senator Barack Obama became the first African American ever to be elected president of the United States. With Brian Williams anchoring coverage on NBC News along with Tom Brokaw and Andrea Mitchell, the network drew more than 12.439 viewers, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals 8-11:30 pm.
MSNBC’s election night coverage with David Gregory, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson, attracted 5.89 million viewers in primetime, up 108% over election night 2004 and up 99% over 2000. In the 25-54 demographic, MSNBC averaged 2.66 million viewers in primetime. Last night was MSNBC’s best night ever among adults 25-54 in primetime.
During the key 11 pm –1 am time period, during which the presidential race was called and both Senator McCain and President-elect Obama spoke, MSNBC ranked #2 among the cable news networks with 6.57 million viewers, while Fox News averaged 5.39 million and CNN 13.17 million.
CNBC from 8 pm -1 am averaged 411,000 total viewers, which is 75% above its 4th-quarter average.
Msnbc.com shattered site records on Election Day, with nearly 250 million page views and over 20 million unique visitors. The record-breaking spike in page views was more than twice the traffic of election day 2004 and more than four times the traffic of the 2006 mid-term election. This marks the site’s highest traffic day in its 12-year history for both page views and unique visitors.
This is absurd.. it’s like ABC adds ESPN numbers every Monday so they can say: DISNEY NETWORKS DRAW MORE THAN 30 million viewers (DWTS + MNF)
Cool, it’s not absurd, it’s PR!
I agree with Cool that it’s absurd. On the broadcast side, NBC got bested by ABC. On the cable side, MSNBC was beat bo CNN and Fox News. What the hell does “networks of NBC” even mean to advertisers? I’m so tired of “PR Departments” putting a moronic spin on something so meaningless. I suppose with little to be upbeat about, NBC has no choice but to tout such a meaningless “victory”. Anyone in the industry with half a brain knows that NBC is in the toilet, so I doubt such PR is going to do anything but inflate the egos of the incompetent executives who are part of “the networks of NBC”.
Those are pretty impressive numbers for MSNBC when you consider that programming providers moved the network from their base packages to the premium packages when MSNBC began providing some liberal programming and it started catching on with viewers. Just imagine their viewership if they were placed back down in the base package like they used to be instead of being banished to the “wilderness” of the premium channels. Their ratings would be off the charts.