BTK Boosts Aaron Brown’s #’s

Some anonymous tips weren’t making it through Gmail’s spam filter this week, so I missed a Tuesday evening tipster who suggested that Aaron Brown may have edged Greta Van Susteren on Monday night. So I sniffed around for these numbers:

25-54 demo: CNN: 0.4, 395,000 / FNC: 0.3, 323,000

Total households: CNN: 1.0, 858,000 / FNC: 1.4, 1,200,000

Total viewers (P2+): CNN: 999,000 / FNC: 1,444,000

FNC still won in HH and total viewers, but CNN was #1 in the demo. Why? Because Aaron Brown spent an hour dissecting the BTK case. One e-mailer says Aaron did it “with pain all over his face.” But he scored one of his highest Nielsen numbers in months…

> Update: “Here’s Jon Klein living up to that brand promise again,” an insider remarked. “Aaron Brown, aka Mr. Capital J Journalism, who regards crime as chocolate icing, is now so concerned about his numbers, he’s had to sell out and revamp his entire show. This must certainly be what Jon Klein is referring to when he says he wants arresting programming.”