With Women’s Marches, MSNBC Has Most-Watched Saturday Since Iraq War

By Chris Ariens 

The women’s rallies didn’t just draw millions of marchers to the streets of cities across the country and around the world, it sent viewers to cable news for continuing coverage of them.

For MSNBC the 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. block was the most watched Saturday since March 29, 2003, during the early days of the Iraq war. MSNBC averaged 1.45 million total viewers. In the A25-54 demo MSNBC averaged 388,000, the best Saturday since Hurricane Rita coverage in Sept. 2005.

MSNBC still trailed Fox News (3,075,000 total viewers /656,000 A25-54) and CNN (2,107,000 / 672,000) in the daypart.

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MSNBC had wall-to-wall coverage of the marches as well as news from the Trump White House, including Sean Spicer‘s appearance in the briefing room during the 5 p.m. ET hour. Here’s how the networks stacked up during that hour (CNN did not air Spicer’s comments live but played them back a few minutes later.)

  • 5 p.m. ET | Sat., Jan. 21, 2017 / Total Viewers / A25-54 demo
    FNC:  3.600m / 731,000
    CNN: 2.312m / 769,000
    MSNBC: 2.261m /592,000

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