Anderson's Good Ratings -- As In My Book

What Scandal? CNN Clocks Huge August Ratings Thanks To Piers Morgan And Anderson Cooper

Glynnis MacNicol | Aug. 31, 2011, 1:38 PM

Who says August is a slow month?

Not CNN, which once again posted big ratings gains thanks in large part to a great deal of serious news (Irene, Tripoli, Earthquake).

Anderson Cooper, who moved into the 8pm slot at the beginning of the month and got off to a slow start, ended up garnering a 74% increase in the demo over year ago programming and a 44% increase vs. last month (oh, Eliot Sptizer).

Meanwhile, Piers Morgan, who spent much of the summer defending himself against allegations he was involved in the phone hacking scandal that rocked Britain, also saw significant gains.

Piers Morgan Tonight increased 52% in the key demo compared to a year ago (oh, Larry King), and 34% in total viewers.

To give you a sense of how that compares, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show (worth noting Maddow has been out much of the month) was up 21% and Fox's Hannity was down 3%.

Over all, CNN numbers pushed them ahead of MSNBC in both total and demo viewers in both primetime and total day.

Fox News, meanwhile, is still far and away the cable leader. Their August numbers were so strong -- they were up 10% in total viewers in primetime, and up 11% in total day compared to August of 2010 -- they are currently the number 3 channel in all of cable.

Oh and the top 13 shows in cable news? They all belong to Fox.