US Cable News Ratings: Countdown on the rise

Bill O'Reilly use to bragg about how his 11pm airing got a better number than Keith Olbermann's 8pm airing. He might not have that to be able to bragg about for much longer.

On Tuesday, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 8pm had 874,000 total viewers, 273,000 in the money demo, compared to The O'Reilly Factor at 11pm having 867,000 total viewers, 226,000 in the money demo. This was reported by Inside Cable News who use live numbers only.

TV Newser, who use Live + Same Day numbers reported that Countdown at 8pm had 952,000 total viewers, 316,000 in the money demo. Compare this to the 11pm Factor having 879,000 total viewers, 226,000 in the money demo.

Not that Bill O'Reilly had bad numbers that day. TV Newser reported 2.747 million viewers watched the 8pm airing of the Factor, 471,000 in the money demo, according to Live + SD numbers, whilst Inside Cable News reported that the live numbers for the Factor were 2.71 million total viewers, 459,000 in the money demo.

Now, TV Newser have released the Live + SD numbers for Wednesday, and it makes fascinating reading.

The O'Reilly Factor at 8pm had 2.85 million total viewers and 658,000 in the money demo, some of O'Reilly's best numbers this year. At 11pm, he did very well again, scoring 1.208 million viewers, 401,000 in the money demo.

But again, Countdown at 8pm beats Factor at 11pm, with Countdown's best ever numbers. A massive 1.209 million viewers watched Countdown, 409,000 in the money demo, beating the 11pm Factor by 1,000 total viewers and 8,000 demo viewers. This is an incredible performance, by anybody's standards. More people watched Countdown on MSNBC than watched any individual programme on both CNN and Headline News and also The Big Story on Fox News Channel. Expect John Gibson on The Big Story to do his usual anti-Keith Olbermann hit job tomorrow then!

Now, Inside Cable News has also reported the live numbers, and not surprisingly, with the Live+SD numbers being so close, The Factor at 11pm had more live viewers. 1.186 million total viewers, 391,000 in the money demo, compared to Countdown at 8pm with 1.148 million total viewers, 375,000 in the money demo.

Still, these are record numbers for Countdown, the first time they have scored over a million viewers live, and against top class numbers for O'Reilly too. O'Reilly fans and Olby haters are going to hate me for saying this, but this is fair and square, a great showing for Keith Olbermann, not only against O'Reilly himself, but a great rating show. Whether Olbermann will overtake O'Reilly at some point in the future, well, who knows. If it were to happen, it wouldn't be for a few years yet, but at this point, I wouldn't rule it out.