More than 27 million people watched the three cable news channels last night between 8-11pm. CNN, Fox News and MSNBC all set viewership records as the 21-month long presidential election came to a climax.
CNN was the top rated broadcast in both Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo. Last night saw CNN’s best-ever demo delivery.
“I think a lot of people got to see what the new CNN is all about,” CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein tells TVNewser, “A really energized post-partisan approach to delivering as much information as quickly as possible.”
Fox News Channel, which finished second in each category, saw its highest ever viewership in younger viewers and its second best ever in Total Viewers. The highest Total Viewer draw for FNC was during the VP debate last month.
The night was a success for MSNBC, too. The network had its highest-ever demo rating prime time. It also surpassed Fox News for second place once the race was called at 11pmET.
CNN produced the biggest gains in the demo compared to 2004 — up 102%. MSNBC was up 87% from four years ago and FNC was up 4%. “These are the results of several years worth of CNN putting its weight behind delivering the most news,” says Klein.
CNN stood out last night for its unique use of technology, including exit poll touchscreens and, yes, those holograms. Click continued to see how Klein thinks it went…
“David Bohrman is a genius when it comes to discovering technology and figuring out how to use them to better tell a story and deliver the news,” Klein tells us. “He doesn’t just throw up technology for its own sake. He really gets the way the device can be a tool for doing better journalism.”
As for the holograms, which featured images of correspondent Jessica Yellin and musician and activist will.i.am, Klein says, “The hologram allowed us to pull people figuratively out of a very noisy environment in Grant Park and actually have a conversation with them. One day all TV news will be done that way.”
Now Klein says they need to start working on new technology. “We need to find the technology to keep Wolf Blitzer broadcasting 24 hours a day,” he joked.