Q2 ’06: MSNBC Beats CNN At 8pm Again

Three months ago, it was big news: In the first quarter of 2006, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann beat CNN’s Paula Zahn Now in the 25-54 demo. It was MSNBC’s first quarterly primetime victory over CNN in almost five years.

The trend is continuing. MSNBC beat CNN at 8pm in the second quarter of 2006, as well, according to numbers out today. Olbermann averaged 156,000 demo viewers, narrowly beating Zahn’s 153,000. MSNBC was up 32 percent from the same quarter last year, while CNN was down 20 percent. Bill O’Reilly averaged 401,000 demo viewers in the quarter, down from 450,000 last quarter and down 14 percent from the same quarter last year.

Among total viewers, MSNBC averaged 412,000 (up 26 percent), CNN averaged 605,000 (up 2 percent) and FNC averaged 2,077,000 (down 3 percent)…