HLN had a rough month in November in primetime. While its crime-focused dayside programming performed very well thanks to the Conrad Murray trial, the channel’s primetime shows were almost all down compared to last year.
The ratings for November, 2011:
- Primetime (Mon-Sun): 387K Total Viewers / 105K A25-54
- Total Day (Mon-Sun): 255K Total Viewers / 88K A25-54
HLN’s afternoon programming in the 2 to 6 PM hours were all up double digits over last year, thanks in large part to coverage of the Murray trial.
In primetime however things were not so rosy. “Nancy Grace” was down double-digits (-17% in Total Viewers and -25% in the demo) compared to last year, though she was absent for some of the month due to her participation on “Dancing with the Stars.”
“Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell” was also down compared to last year at 7 PM, down -8% in Total Viewers and -down 27% in the demo.
At 9 PM, “Dr. Drew” was down compared to the time period last year when Joy Behar was in that slot, though he has improved in the time period since taking over earlier this year.
At 10 PM, the soon-to-end “Joy Behar” was up slightly in Total Viewers from last year, when a rerun of “Nancy Grace” ran in the slot, but was down -25% in the demo.
Even “Morning Express,” which has long been a bright spot on the channel’s lineup, had a rough month, down -14% in Total Viewers and down -31% in the demo. It still performed better than “American Morning” on CNN, but failed to top MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in either total or demo viewers.
There is some good news, however. The channel’s weekend mysteries block has improved ratings on those days, and the boffo Casey Anthony ratings from this Summer will likely result in HLN having a strong year overall once year-end ratings come in next month.