When Brian Williams debuted his “pop up” MSNBC newscast, The 11th Hour, he described the all-politics show as a “pop up broadcast” which will air nightly “from now until Election Day, when we will cancel ourselves.”
MSNBC may have reason to reconsider. The ratings have been solid, with The 11th Hour averaging almost 1.1 million total viewers in its first seven nights, and more than 235,000 A25-54 viewers. That’s earned Williams a run of victories over CNN Tonight, but Fox News’ re-air of The O’Reilly Factor continues to hang on to first place.
A review of Nielsen ratings data shows not only is Williams beating CNN in the 11 p.m. ET time slot, but ratings for The 11th Hour outperform each hour of CNN’s prime lineup for far in September.
Those numbers–and Williams’ ability to produce news making interviews–fuels the ratings revival MSNBC is experiencing overall. But so far, there’s no public talk about extending 11th Hour past November. “We are so focused on what we are doing between now and Election Day – some days I feel as if we can barely keep up with that,” 11th Hour executive producer Patrick Burkey told Variety. “Whatever comes next, we’ll figure out as we go.”