Special Election Night Ratings: FNC’s Best Night Since Election ’08; Best Night Ever for ‘Hannity’

By Chris Ariens 

Scott Brown wasn’t the only winner Tuesday night.

Fox News Channel put up its best numbers since Election Night 2008. FNC was the #1 news channel in all day-parts, beating the three cable news channels combined in all categories. “Hannity” at 9pmET had its highest Total Viewer average ever (you have to go back to 2003 for a higher number when the show was “Hannity & Colmes”.)

Advertisement

Primetime 8-11pmET (Live +SD)
FNC: 6,161,000 Total Viewers (1,901,000 in A25-54)
CNN: 1,503,000 Total Viewers (483,000 in A25-54)
MSNBC: 1,138,000 Total Viewers (387,000 in A25-54)
HLN: 668,000 Total Viewers (250,000 in A25-54)

Total Day
FNC: 2,235,000 Total Viewers (664,000 in A25-54)
CNN: 809,000 Total Viewers (271,000 in A25-54)
MSNBC: 484,000 Total Viewers (155,000 in A25-54)
HLN: 329,000 Total Viewers (155,000 in A25-54)

Fox News peaked around 9:20pmET when the Massachusetts special election for U.S. senator was called for Brown. With Bret Baier making the call, FNC averaged a whopping 6.81M Total Viewers. CNN drew 1.68M, MSNBC had 1.24M and HLN had 845K.

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin didn’t like what he saw on MSNBC Tuesday night.

It may be too much to expect NBC, these days reduced to a national wisecrack, to be embarrassed over the frothing lunacy that passes for news coverage at corporate stepchild MSNBC. But both networks are part of the same news division. If news boss Steve Capus thinks his reporters can continue to appear with Olbermann and Maddow without suffering credibility contamination, he’s dumber than whoever was behind the Leno/O’Brien late-night shuffle.

> More: Fox News nearly doubled ABC’s average from 9-11pm Tuesday. FNC averaged 6.809M viewers at 9pm to ABC’s 3.288M with “Scrubs” (9pm) and “Better Off Ted” (9:30). At 10pm FNC averaged 6.399M to ABC’s 3.683M with “The Forgotten.”

(h/t TVbytheNumbers)

Advertisement