The Weather Channel is traditionally the go-to source for breaking news about weather-related events on television, and has been for years. So it’s not particularly surprising to see that it delivered more adults 25-54 this past Wednesday – the day Hurricane Michael made landfall and inflicted an extraordinary amount of damage on the Florida panhandle – than any other cable news network in a number of different dayparts.
Per Nielsen data from Wednesday, The Weather Channel ranked No. 1 among all cable networks across the 3 a.m. – 3 a.m. daypart among adults 25-54, which is the demographic news advertisers tend to base their ad spend on. That’s +8 percent more than Fox News Channel, +59 percent more than CNN and +108 percent than MSNBC.
TWC was also the No. 1 basic cable network among adults 25-54 in the 5 a.m. – 9 a.m. daypart. Apparently the first thing people wanted to find out upon waking up was how bad the weather currently was, and how bad the weather it would be going forward. They selected The Weather Channel for that information.
That being said, TWC wasn’t No. 1 on Wednesday in every daypart. For instance, in Sales Day (7 a.m. – 2 a.m.) it was edged by Fox News 416,000 vs. 406, 000, per Nielsen data.
Additionally, The Weather Channel ranked No. 5 in Wednesday prime time in the aforementioned A25-54 demo, finishing behind TBS, (which broadcast the Yankees-Red Sox series clincher) Fox News Channel, FX and ESPN.
See below:
Wednesday Oct. 10, 2018:
| Overnight 3a-3a | Morning 5a-9a Prime 8p-11p | ||||||||||||
| Rank | Network | P 25-54 (000) | Rank | Network | P 25-54 (000) | Rank | Network | P 25-54 (000) | |||||
| 1 | TWC | 406 | 1 | TWC | 286 | 1 | FNC | 665 | |||||
| 2 | FNC | 376 | 2 | FNC | 274 | 2 | TWC | 481 | |||||
| 3 | CNN | 256 | 3 | MSNBC | 156 | 3 | CNN | 445 | |||||
| 4 | FOOD | 208 | 4 | CNN | 143 | 4 | FOOD | 440 | |||||
| 5 | MSNBC | 195 | 5 | HLN | 118 | 5 | MSNBC | 423 | |||||
| 6 | HGTV | 171 | 6 | TLC | 80 | 6 | DISC | 396 | |||||
| 7 | DISC | 158 | 7 | DISC | 61 | 7 | HIST | 354 | |||||
| 8 | HIST | 145 | 8 | AEN | 50 | 8 | HGTV | 353 | |||||
| 9 | AEN | 130 | 9 | HGTV | 45 | 9 | AEN | 214 | |||||
| 10 | TLC | 113 | 10 | SCIC | 35 | 10 | TLC | 214 | |||||
| 11 | TRAV | 92 | 11 | HIST | 34 | 11 | NGC | 168 | |||||