What a week for anomalous ratings days! Earlier this week, we noted that CNN’s Piers Morgan saw only 39,000 demo viewers on Tuesday night, way down from his average, and a record-low for CNN. Last night, Morgan was back up to a more typical 175,000 demo viewers, but the drama was on MSNBC and Fox News.
At 10 PM, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell topped FNC’s Greta Van Susteren in the demo. It wasn’t by that much, but it was a clean win for O’Donnell, and clean ratings wins over Fox News (when there aren’t any big news events or specials) are an unusual thing.
O’Donnell averaged 327,000 demo viewers, to Van Susteren’s 309,000. In total viewers, Van Susteren still handily topped O’Donnell by around 500,000 viewers, but a demo win is still a win. CNN’s Anderson Cooper averaged 143,000 demo viewers, about average for him.