Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for August 28 2008

The final night of the Democratic Convention, featuring Obama’s speech, lifted CNN to wins in prime-time for viewers, adults 25-54 and adults 35-64. What is likely to be a rare trifecta after this week for them.

The 10-11pm hour featured monster ratings for all the cable newsers. CNN topped out at 8.056 million viewers winning the hour and besting its broadcast competition.

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,359,000 viewers
CNN – 1,503,000 viewers
MSNBC – 849,000 viewers
CNBC – 204,000 viewers
HLN – 312,000 viewers

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Most-watched convention speech.  Ever.

James Hibberd is reporting that a cumulative 27.7  38.4 million saw Barack Obama’s acceptance speech.  Michael Phelps-ian in the aggregate.  Obviously there’s not always an advantage to reporting numbers early, but TVbytheNumbers was out to lunch (literally).  You can see the updated details here.

Wednesday’s Audience Again Increases Big Over 2004’s

Wednesday’s third night of the Democratic National Convention again brought the cable news operations significant audience increases across the board over the same night in the 2004 convention with prime-time audiences up between 61% and 96% over 2004.

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Casual news viewers flocked to CNN as they again won the prime-time battle with an average of 4.24 million viewers and 1.749 million adults 25-54.

CNN immediately got into a squabbling match with NBC because for the 10-11pm hour CNN had 5.383 million viewers to NBC’s 5.361 million. Hour win for CNN. But the telecast ran to 11:03pm and if you take their entire 63 minute broadcast into account NBC averaged 5.464 million to CNN’s 5.375 million. Program win for NBC. Honestly, it’s a bit silly.

Fox News was second in prime-time viewership averaging 2.855 million, and  MSNBC was second in adults 25-54 with an average of 873,000.

Here’s even more detailed aggregate data with lots of age demographic information directly from Nielsen if you’re interested.

Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for August 27 2008

FNC still scored a total day victory, but last night during prime-time CNN added about 800,000 viewers versus Tuesday night to widen its lead over FNC and MSNBC. CNN won all age demos, both for the total day and during prime-time. And CNN had almost as many viewers from 10pm-11pm as NBC. NBC, which led all networks during 10pm convention coverage had 5.63 million viewers in the preliminary overnight numbers. CNN had 5.38 million for the 10pm hour, which was much better than CBS (3.59 million) and ABC (3.31 million).

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,301,000 viewers
CNN – 1,270,000 viewers
MSNBC – 740,000 viewers
CNBC – 186,000 viewers
HLN – 304,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,855,000 viewers
CNN –4,240,000 viewers
MSNBC- 2,097,000 viewers
CNBC –137,000 viewers
HLN – 807,000 viewers

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The ratings for the second night of the 2008 Democratic Convention were again higher than the comparable night in 2004 for cable news operations, but the increases vs 2004 were not as great. Prime-time viewership was up 42-44% over 2004 [vs. an increase of  84-88% on Monday] and adults 25-54 viewership up between 8-134% [vs. 42-127% on Monday].

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CNN again won the prime-time battle with an average of 3.406 million viewers and 1.281 million adults 25-54.  They narrowly beat Fox’s average viewership of 3.330 million which was up from Monday, as was Fox’s 25-54 viewership of 823,000. MSNBC finished third among the cable networks for both viewership groups.

Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for August 26 2008

A slightly different and closer prime-time race than Monday. CNN edges Fox for total prime-time viewers. Fox edges MSNBC for second in the prime-time adults 25-54 demo which is easy won by CNN. CNN edges Fox for the prime-time 35-64 demo.

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,361,000 viewers
CNN – 1,184,000 viewers
MSNBC – 737,000 viewers
CNBC – 174,000 viewers
HLN – 305,000 viewers

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Big Convention Viewership Increases For Cable News Operations

For the top 3 Cable News networks, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, the ratings for the first night of the 2008 Democratic Convention were substantially higher than the first night in 2004, with prime-time viewership up  as much as 88% and adults 25-54 viewership up as much as 127%.

As is typical with big news events, CNN won the prime-time battle with an average of 3.7 million viewers and 1.36 million adults 25-54. Those numbers are comparable with the broadcast network results from 10-11pm last night. They were likely aided by their more Democratic leaning viewership as well. Fox News was second in viewership averaging 3.0 million, but was edged by MSNBC for second in adults 25-54 with an average of 847,000.

I’ll go back and look at our ratings data for past party conventions and see if there is any correlation between convention viewership and voting patterns (although my guess is that the level of data we have is inconclusive), but the Democrats are likely very pleased.

Live + Same Day Weekend Ratings
Cable News Ratings August 23, 2008
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 977,000 viewers
CNN – 782,000 viewers
MSNBC – 508,000 viewers
CNBC – 262,000 viewers
HLN – 238,000 viewers

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