CNN’s coverage of Prince‘s death led to a pretty remarkable ratings victory last Friday: four of its shows beat their direct Fox News competitors with viewers in the 25-54 demographic.
At 5 pm, Fox’s The Five received 249K viewers in that demo, compared to 266K for The Situation Room. Wolf Blitzer‘s second hour beat Bret Baier in the demo with 263K to 257K viewers.
Erin Burnett took 260K viewers at 7 to Greta Van Susteren‘s 203K, but the true surprise came in the 9 pm hour.
Megyn Kelly and Don Lemon were both live last Friday and led with Prince’s passing. Here’s how narrow Lemon’s ratings win was: with viewers 25-54, Lemon took 268K viewers. Kelly got 267K.
UPDATE –– 8:24 pm EST: We should add here another big win for CNN. Not only did Jake Tapper‘s 4 pm program beat Neil Cavuto in the demo––359K to 214K viewers––but overall this past Friday, The Lead was #1 in the demo.
Here are the rest of your Friday ratings:
| TV NEWS RATINGS: 25-54 DEMOGRAPHIC (L +SD) | ||||
 |
 |
 |
||
| 5 pm | The Five
249 |
Blitzer
266 |
Todd
94 |
|
| 6 pm | Baier
257 |
Blitzer
263 |
WADR
83 |
|
| 7 pm | Van Susteren
203 |
Burnett
260 |
Matthews
141 |
|
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
303 |
Cooper
261 |
Hayes
148 |
|
| 9 pm | Kelly
267 |
Lemon
268 |
Maddow
240 |
|
| 10 pm | Hannity
255 |
Lemon
253 |
Special
176 |
|
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
230 |
Bourdain
171 |
Hayes
122 |
|
| PRIME TIME | 275 | 261 | 189 | |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data. | ||||
| TV NEWS RATINGS: TOTAL VIEWERS (L +SD) | ||||
|
|
|
||
| 5 pm | The Five
1.829 |
Blitzer
735 |
Todd
572 |
|
| 6 pm | Baier
1.834 |
Blitzer
686 |
WADR
494 |
|
| 7 pm | Van Susteren
1.468 |
Burnett
745 |
Matthews
725 |
|
| 8 pm | O’Reilly
2.560 |
Cooper
810 |
Hayes
712 |
|
| 9 pm | Kelly
1.892 |
Lemon
694 |
Maddow
1.031 |
|
| 10 pm | Hannity
1.283 |
Lemon
592 |
Special
741 |
|
| 11 pm | O’Reilly
945 |
Bourdain
448 |
Hayes
405 |
|
| PRIME TIME | 1.912 | 699 | 831 | |
| Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data | ||||
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