CNN beat Fox News’s coverage of the Iowa Democratic debate simulcast and MSNBC’s live coverage of the George Mitchell press conference yesterday afternoon.
CNN edged FNC in total viewers and beat FNC by almost 50% in the A25-54 demo. MSNBC’s choice to take the Mitchell presser live did not attract much attention, and their tape-delayed debate numbers were low as well.
For the two days of debates, Fox News had the highest total viewers (during the GOP debate) and CNN had the highest in the A25-54 demo (during the Dem debate).
Combining the numbers from the three networks, the Iowa Democratic debate ranked somewhere near the middle of the pack in the primary debate ranker in total viewers and near the bottom in the demo. The numbers were fairly similar to the GOP debate from Wednesday.
Total Viewers
CNN: 977,000 Fox News: 947,000 MSNBC (Mitchell presser): 282,000 MSNBC (debate at 3pmET): 201,000
A25-54 Demo
CNN: 344,000 Fox News: 234,000 MSNBC (Mitchell presser): 96,000 MSNBC (debate at 3pmET): 46,000