When the news broke Friday night that Mitt Romney was going to announce his running mate, and that the running mate would be Rep. Paul Ryan, the news channels didn’t get much of a ratings bump. In fact, for MSNBC, the ratings dropped precipitously — down 1/3 in the demo — when the network switched from “Lock Up” to extended coverage of the news at Midnight. Fox News, which was first with news of the announcement, saw a Total Viewer drop from 10pm to 11pm when the news broke, though they added demo viewers. See the Friday Scoreboard for details.
As for Saturday, here are the cable news ratings for the announcement — the lead-up in the 8amET hour and the event in the 9am.
- Cable Ratings, Aug. 11, 2012, 8amET
| Network | Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|
| Fox News | 1.507M | 425K |
| MSNBC | 471K | 184K |
| CNN | 379K | 118K |
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- Cable Ratings, Aug. 11, 2012, 9amET
| Network | Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|
| Fox News | 2.632M | 701K |
| MSNBC | 599K | 231K |
| CNN | 479K | 162K |