Sen. Barack Obama appeared on all three cable networks Friday night for three consecutive hours to discuss the comments of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But it was FNC’s Hannity & Colmes that was the big ratings winner.
The interview helped make the 9pmET show the highest-rated of the night in cable news. In fact, it was the single biggest ratings night in both categories for H&C since August 1, 2007 (excluding Super Tuesday).
H&C’s 708,000 A25-54 viewers and 2.71 million Total Viewers (Live +SD) even surpassed their lead-in, The O’Reilly Factor, which is a rare occurrence. During the 8pmET hour, Obama was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown (321,000 in demo / 975,000 Total) and on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 (304,000 in demo / 1,167,000 Total). Huffington Post’s Rachel Sklar has the breakdown of the media tour.
On FNC, Obama was interviewed by Major Garrett, who has covered the front-runner the entire primary season.
So, will the strong H&C viewership lead to an Obama appearance on another Fox program?
> Update: With a repeat of the Obama interview playing during On The Record at 10pmET, FNC saw another victory in both the demo and Total Viewers.