Shep #1 In The Demo Wednesday (Thanks To A Car Chase)

Wednesday was a good ratings day across the board for cable news. But no one had a better day than Shep Smith, who averaged 510,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic. Smith had the #1 show on cable in the demo on Wednesday, beating the usual winner, Bill O’Reilly.

Why did so many young viewers watch The Fox Report on Wednesday? “News executives where I work…are making employees go through transcripts to find out what Shep did last night to get so many demo viewers,” an anonymous tipster said yesterday. The answer is simple: “Half the Wednesday night Fox Report was blown out due to a car chase,” a staffer says.

> Update: 12:14pm: At least one viewer predicted Shep’s demo win. On Wednesday night an e-mailer wrote this to TVNewser: “I wonder if FNC was trying to raise the ratings for the Fox Report tonight (March 22nd) with the last half of the Fox Report having non-stop commerical-free car chase coverage of a car chase from Southern California?”