CNN capped off 2015 with another win among younger viewers, giving them a demo win for two out of the last four months: September, and now, December.
Before September, CNN hadn’t come in first for an entire month since February 2008. And before that, the last time CNN won a month in the A25-54 demo was November 2001.
CNN averaged 413,000 prime time viewers in demo for December, topping Fox News by 13 percent (367,000). The network got a boost with its GOP debate on Dec. 15–the only cable network to carry a debate in December–and ended up winning New Year’s Eve as well. Another highlight was the second season of This is Life with Lisa Ling, which beat MSNBC anytime a new episode premiered. CNN was up +128 percent in the demo compared to December 2014.
As always, Fox News had the most total viewers for the month, but CNN had significant growth in that category as well: up +157 percent vs. Dec. 2014.
CNN also claimed victory for the month of October (because the network uses a blended Nielsen metric of Live +SD, Live +3 and Live +7) but Fox News edged them out in the Live + same day measurement that TVNewser typically uses.