CNN flops in February as Fox News surges
FNC only cable news network to see gains in primetime
|
More Articles:
Most Viewed:
White House cold at Kennedy Center(11640 views)Sunny screenplays get Academy's vote(1540 views)Future of Film summit aims positive(1431 views)Variety.com behind paywall(1317 views)Slamdance to debut Soderbergh's 'Fine'(1104 views)'Eclipse' sets Imax release(947 views) |
Fox News beat all other cable news outlets combined in February, extending its streak to six straight months.
FNC averaged 1.57 million viewers in primetime, up 18% from the same period last year, while CNN fell 21% to 637,000 viewers from the same time period.
February marked what has been a rocky three months for new CNN U.S. prexy Jonathan Klein, who came to the network hoping to improve CNN's primetime performance, where it has been most hurt by a strong FNC lineup built around tentpole "The O'Reilly Factor."
CNN endured a thrashing by Fox during the State of the Union Address, and even lost in the key 25-54 demographic to third-place MSNBC during the speech.
Primetime tumble
CNN primetime stalwarts "Larry King Live," "Wolf Blitzer Reports," "Lou Dobbs Tonight," "Paula Zahn Now" and "Newsnight With Aaron Brown" all suffered double-digit declines, while "Anderson Cooper 360" was up slightly, by 2%.
Klein replaced the executive producer of "Aaron Brown" in a bid to make the show more competitive against "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren," which was up 24% for the month.
Joyous over CNN's February perf, Fox staffers began referring to the CNN prexy as "Jon De-cline."
FNC had primetime increases across the board, led by Van Susteren at 10 p.m., "Hannity & Colmes" up 7%, and "The O'Reilly Factor," cable news' most-watched program with 2.4 million viewers, up 7%.
MSNBC declined 15% overall and 14% in primetime, while financial news channel CNBC declined 23% overall and 42% in primetime.
