CNN had a strong Friday night, as the network followed new developments in the Charleston church shooting.
At 4 p.m., CNN’s The Lead (with Jake Tapper out) took the demo with 251,000 viewers to 197,000 viewers for Neil Cavuto.
At 6 p.m., CNN’s Wolf Blitzer had a narrow victory in the demo, with Situation Room beating Fox News’ Special Report. Host Bret Baier was off, with Chris Wallace filling in.
At 7 p.m., it was another close win in the demo for CNN, with Erin Burnett OutFront delivering 221,000 viewers to FNC’s Greta Van Susteren, whose On the Record had 198,000. CNN had live coverage of breaking news from South Carolina, while Fox News had a special edition of On the Record, focusing on the manhunt for two New York prison escapees.
FNC’s usual strength in the 8 p.m. hour was unchanged, with Bill O’Reilly soundly beating CNN’s Anderson Cooper in the demo, and leading Fox News to a narrow victory in prime among viewers A25-54.
But at 9 p.m., Cooper’s second live hour from Charleston beat an hour of FNC’s The Kelly File — Megyn Kelly was off, replaced by Martha MacCallum — 260,000 to 245,000 demo viewers.
And at 10 p.m., Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity led with South Carolina, but fell to second place in the demo behind CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, who was live in Charleston. The margin — 63,000 viewers — was CNN’s largest of the night.
Among total viewers, meanwhile, it remained a clean sweep for Fox News from 4 p.m. to midnight, with each hour easily defeating CNN.
Here’s the full Scoreboard.