CNN's Good Ratings

.


CNN Leads in Cable News as MSNBC Loses Ground

By Bill Carter
Published: March 22, 2011


CNN has been the big ratings gainer among the cable news networks during the extensive coverage of events in Japan and Libya in the last two weeks, and that success has come mostly at the expense of MSNBC, which has fallen into third place almost across the board because of CNN’s surge.

The disparity has been most noticeable during the last two weekends, when CNN has attracted huge audiences with continuing coverage of the international crises, beating even Fox News, the perennial leader among the news channels. Meanwhile MSNBC, sticking to a weekend lineup of recorded programs largely about problems in prisons, attracted only about a third as many viewers as CNN.

In prime time Saturday, CNN averaged 678,000 viewers among the audience most desired by news advertisers, ages 25 to 54. MSNBC averaged 254,000, while Fox News drew 353,000. On Sunday, CNN averaged 442,000 viewers; MSNBC, 298,000; and Fox News, 344,000.

Now CNN’s advantage has begun to carry over into weeknights. For more than two years, MSNBC has consistently beaten CNN in prime time on weeknights. But for March, CNN has moved ahead from 8 to 11 p.m., beating MSNBC in every hour among the 25-to-54 audience.

If the message seems to be that CNN cannot be matched in covering breaking international news, even MSNBC’s top executive is not disputing it.

“This is where CNN excels,” said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC. “This is in their bull’s-eye, and they’ve done a great job. Even Fox News, which dominates them, gets beat by CNN at times like this.”

He called MSNBC’s weekend reliance on “Lockup,” its recorded documentary-style program about prisons, a “tricky situation.” He said, “This is our strategy for weekends, and it has worked well for us.” Its audience now “has an expectation” of seeing such programs on Saturday and Sunday nights, he said.

Mr. Griffin defended the decision to stick with the programs last weekend, saying MSNBC added a taped hour about the situation in Japan to its “Lockup” lineup and extended live coverage of the Libyan air attacks longer into the evening than usual on weekends (though stopping short of prime time).

“We knew it was an ongoing story,” he said. But he argued “things had seemed to calm down” Saturday and Sunday night when MSNBC returned to scheduled recorded programs.

But at 8:40 Saturday night, CNN’s correspondent Nic Robertson appeared live with a report of heavy gunfire and explosions in Tripoli.

“I think MSNBC really blew it,” said Judy Muller, a former network news correspondent who is now an associate professor of journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. “They lost a great opportunity to set themselves out as one of the few places people can get breaking news. When you are near a nuclear meltdown, I can’t imagine a decision to go with your regular programming at that point.”

Mr. Griffin said MSNBC always has a crew on standby to go on the air if events warrant. He said the top correspondents covering events in Libya for NBC News were available to MSNBC, and it used some of them during the day Saturday.

Mr. Griffin said that international coverage “is the last area where we’re vulnerable” to CNN. “We’re chipping away, but it’s going to take us awhile.”

MSNBC moved ahead of CNN, he said, on the strength of its coverage of politics. The channel has found a niche relying on liberal commentators in prime time on weeknights.

But he said that this did not mean MSNBC should be labeled as a commentary channel rather than a news channel. “Our strategy has gone in a different direction on the weekends,” he said. “It works. It’s very effective. Unfortunately, during this kind of time, it’s always a bit complicated.”

A version of this article appeared in print on March 23, 2011, on page B8 of the New York edition.