Now that we have all five days worth of ratings data from Nielsen, it is worth taking a look to see how “Piers Morgan Tonight” fared in its first week.
For the week, Morgan averaged 1.229 million total viewers, including 342,000 A25-54. That placed him a fairly distant second behind Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” which averaged 2.072 million total viewers, including 512,000 A25-54, but above MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” which drew 1.077 million total viewers and 289,000 A25-54.
From day one (Oprah Winfrey) to day five (George Clooney and Nick Clooney) Morgan’s show dropped -66% in total viewers and -77% in the demo. This isn’t surprising, however, as Fridays tend to have fewer viewers, and premiere shows tend to have higher numbers than average.
As we have written before, what really matters is where Morgan’s show ends up settling in the ratings, and that is still too soon to tell.
Despite the addition of Morgan, CNN as a whole still finished behind FNC and MSNBC in both total viewers and the demo last week in primetime.
This week, Morgan has Rudy Giuliani (which aired last night), The Kardashian sisters and preacher Joel Osteen on as guests, and the real challenge begins. As sampling begins to fade, a better idea of what the program’s average viewership will settle at may emerge.
What did you think of Morgan’s first week? Are you looking forward to any interviews this week? Let us know in the comments.