US Cable News Ratings: Countdown's best figures!

This is a post that I am cross posting on both Viewpoint and EMC MediaBlog. For those of you who read one blog but not the other, a brief intro. Viewpoint is my own personal blog where I cover an eclectic mix of subjects. EMC MediaBlog is a blog I contribute to along with many other Transdiffusion colleagues about the media, predominantly in Britain, but we also cover overseas media as well. So, with the introduction to new readers out the way, it's time to talk about the growing Countdown.

No, this is nothing to do with the Channel 4 game show which started on the same day that the channel did, but a news programme on US cable network MSNBC. Countdown with Keith Olbermann is one of MSNBC's most popular shows, and is in many ways, the ratings flagship of the network. However, it is ususally behind many other shows on both Fox News Channel and CNN.

All that could be changing, because last Sunday (26th August 2007), MSNBC's parent company, NBC, aired a live Sunday version of the show, before a pre-season NFL game. Preliminary ratings indicate the show was watched by around 4.1 million viewers, which is around 6 times the usual audience for the programme on MSNBC (around 600-700 thousand), which for a show that wasn't advertised heavily, except on the political blogosphere,is a pretty decent performance.

Now, the numbers for Wednesday night's cable news ratings have just been released, and they reveal some interesting facts.

In what is seen in advertising circles as a key audience demographic, the 25-54 demographic, Countdown was only 6000 viewers behind their big rival in the 8pm timeslot, The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel (299,000 for Countdown, 305,000 for the Factor). However, the bigger story lies in the total viewer numbers, where Countdown recorded what must be its best performance ever, 974,000 viewers.

This doesn't beat the Factor, in a week where Bill O'Reilly is on holiday, but it did emphatically take second place, behind the Factor's 1.641 million, but well ahead of third place CNN (527,000). Maybe O'Reilly being off this week does help, but I think the greater factor here is the live Sunday edition of Countdown which has definitely brought new viewers, to the show, and in the long run, could bring new viewers to MSNBC. Only time will tell.

On that wednesday, Countdown was watched by more viewers than any of the following programmes on US cable news.

The Big Story with John Gibson (Fox News Channel)
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN)
Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
Glenn Beck (Headline News)
Nancy Grace (Headline News)

Add to that that it was less than 100,000 viewers behind these programmes...

Lary King Live (CNN - 1,029,000)
On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (Fox News Channel - 1,071,000)

...and you have an idea of just how good a performance it was. Larry King Live was the only programme on CNN to rate higher and nobody on Headlines News could even get glose. In fact, even combining the ratings of any two Headline News shows that day wouldn't help them beat Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Is this the start of a trend? We'll have to wait and see, but there is definitely signs of an upturn, and expect these numbers to be heavily celebrated by MSNBC.