Q1 ’06: MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann Beats CNN’s Paula Zahn In The Demo

In the first quarter of 2006, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann beat CNN’s Paula Zahn Now in the 25-54 demographic. “This marks MSNBC’s first quarterly primetime victory over CNN in the demo in almost five years (2Q01 MSNBC Investigates beat CNN at 8 p.m. ET),” MSNBC’s press release said today.

Countdown averaged 164,000 total viewers in the quarter, up 41% from Q1 2005. Zahn averaged 158,000 demo viewers (down 33 percent), according to MSNBC. Bill O’Reilly averaged 450,000 in the demo (down 24 percent). Zahn and O’Reilly still had a significant advantage in the category of total viewers, though.

Olbermann came within 3,000 viewers of beating Headline News star Nancy Grace in the demo. According to CNN, Grace averaged 167,000 demo viewers. (This post was corrected at 4:15pm.)