The Ratings Are Good

CNN’s Anderson Cooper Beats MSNBC Twice in One Night

Don Irvine — September 18, 2011

It looks like AC 360 with Anderson Cooper is establishing itself with the key A25-54 demographic, as the show beat MSNBC twice in one night on two different nights.

On September 14, Cooper’s program won the 8 p.m. time slot in the demo by beating Lawrence O’Donnell 167,000-156,000 and then repeated the win by beating Ed Schultz at 10 p.m. 221,000-199,000 with a repeat of the 8 o’clock program.

Cooper repeated the feat the next night by beating O’Donnell by an even wider margin 207,000-170,000 and then walloped Schultz at 10 p.m. 241,000-138,000.

Two nights may not make a trend, and Cooper still trails in the overall audience numbers, but Cooper’s success with young viewers and the fact that a repeat can beat original programming should be a cause for concern for MSNBC.

For CNN this is some much needed good news on the ratings front and if Cooper can keep it up the network might actually be able to escape from the back of the cable-news ratings pack.