November was a strong month for cable news, bolstered by the election early on. Fox News, as usual, held the top spot in both the total viewer and adults 25-54 metrics, and secured the top eight programs in total viewers and the top two slots in the demo. Note: this ranker does not include election night coverage, just regularly scheduled programming. I am including the election night program rankings after the jump.
No surprise here: “The O’Reilly Factor” was the top program on Fox News in both total and demo viewers, averaging 3.52 million and 690,000 viewers, respectively.
MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” had a very strong month, topping MSNBC programming and placing ninth overall in total viewers and third overall in the demo. Maddow averaged 1.69 million total viewers and 552,000 adults 25-54.
In total viewers, CNN’s top program was “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” while the 8 PM airing of “AC360” led the way in the demo. Blitzer’s program placed 20th overall and averaged 917,000 viewers, while “AC360” placed 19th, averaging 312,000 demo viewers.
HLN’s top program in total viewers was its ‘Weekend Mysteries” block, which averaged 362,000 viewers. Its top program in the demo was “What Would You Do?” which drew 133,000.
CNBC’s top show was “Squawk On The Street,” which averaged 264,000 viewers, in the demo it was “American Greed,” which averaged 103,000. FBN’s top program was “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” which averaged 151,000 total viewers, and 45,000 demo viewers. For the third straight month Dobbs topped CNBC’s 7 PM program “Kudlow Report” in the demo, though Kudlow was on top in total viewers.
Election night was obviously the big one in November. The 9-10 PM edition of FNC’s election coverage led the way among cable news, placing 6th overall behind NFL football and AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” averaging 11.8 million viewers. CNN’s 11PM-12AM hour of “Election Night in America” wasn’t far behind, placing ninth overall with 10.8 million viewers. MSNBC’s 11PM-12 AM coverage placed 28th overall, averaging 5.58 million viewers.
The rankers: