Politics

Despite CNN leaning on Dorner shooting coverage, FNC is tops in SOTU ratings contest

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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In a somewhat unexpected Nielsen rating outcome from last night’s State of the Union address, Fox News took an overall ratings win in the three major categories of news on Tuesday night — the State of the Union address itself, the entire 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. primetime and the breaking news on Christopher Dorner coming out of Big Bear Lake, Calif.

CNN over the last several years has gotten bumps in ratings out of major breaking news events. While the network did beat out its competitors in all three categories in the coveted 25-54 age demographic, it could not secure an overall win.

MSNBC finished mid-pack in both categories: overall and the 25-54 demo.

Numbers (courtesy of Nielsen Media Research):

Address (9:15 p.m. – 10:15 p.m.)

FNC: 3,683,000 Total Viewers / 957,000 A25-54
CNN: 3,635,000 Total Viewers / 1,436,000 A25-54
MSNBC: 3,034,000 Total Viewers / 1,028,000 A25-54

Primetime (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.)

FNC: 3,822,000 Total Viewers / 868,000 A25-54
CNN: 3,361,000 Total Viewers / 1,284,000 A25-54
MSNBC: 2,393,000 Total Viewers / 790,000 A25-54

Dorner breaking news (6:00 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.)

FNC: 3,183,000 Total Viewers / 669,000 A25-54
CNN: 2,983,000 Total Viewers / 1,013,000 A25-54
MSNBC: 1,271,000 Total Viewers / 401,000 A25-54

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