Brian Williams’ Return Gives MSNBC Daypart 2nd-Best All Year

In Brian Williams‘ return to TV news, anchoring MSNBC’s coverage of Pope Francis’s arrival in the U.S., the network saw a +76 percent increase in viewership from 3-5 p.m. ET, vs. its Sept. 2014 average. With 526,000 viewers, this was MSNBC’s second-best 3-5 p.m. ET showing all year. Only the SCOTUS same sex marriage decision drew more viewers (721,000).

MSNBC still finished third among the cable news channels. As always, Fox News finished first, but was down -4 percent in viewers vs. the Sept. 2014 average. CNN, which saw a +59 percent jump vs. Sept. 2014, was second.