Hundreds of thousands of viewers who watched the Barack Obama commercial on one of the broadcast networks switched to MSNBC at 8:30. Obama pulled in 3.5 million Total Viewers on MSNBC, the only cable news network to air the infomercial. An abbreviated Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 8:30pmET brought in an additional 688,000 Total Viewers. FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor still won the 8pmET hour in Total Viewers, while Obama/Olbermann came in first in the demo.
33.6 million people watched the Obama ad across seven networks, most on NBC (9.8 million). CBS was next with 8.6 million and FOX drew 7.1 million.
Back on cable, MSNBC came in first in the A25-54 demo at 9pmET with The Rachel Maddow Show beating Hannity & Colmes and Larry King Live (with guest Sen. John McCain). FNC also won that hour in Total Viewers.
Fox News Channel wins prime time (8-11pmET) in Total Viewers (3.66 million), MSNBC wins in the demo (1.27 million).