CNN Falls to Last Place in Cable News
David Sessions
Washington Reporter
Posted:
10/26/09
When the October cable news ratings are finalized Monday afternoon, CNN will finish fourth and last place for the first time, the New York Times' Media Decoder blog reports. The network that pioneered the 24-hour news format has trailed the Fox News Channel and MSNBC before, but is now also being beaten by its sister network, CNN Headline News.
For the first time, MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" beat CNN's prime-time highlight, "Anderson Cooper 360," and Sean Hannity's and Rachel Maddow's programs both finished solidly ahead of "Larry King Live" in the prime-time hours.
CNN said that it still attracts the most viewers when all hours of the day are considered, and that it is no surprise that viewers turn to more partisan programming during prime-time. "CNN's ratings are always going to be more dependent on the news environment, much more so that opinion-based programming especially in prime time," the network said in a statement.
For the first time, MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" beat CNN's prime-time highlight, "Anderson Cooper 360," and Sean Hannity's and Rachel Maddow's programs both finished solidly ahead of "Larry King Live" in the prime-time hours.
CNN said that it still attracts the most viewers when all hours of the day are considered, and that it is no surprise that viewers turn to more partisan programming during prime-time. "CNN's ratings are always going to be more dependent on the news environment, much more so that opinion-based programming especially in prime time," the network said in a statement.