Fox Dominated The Year In Cable News

NEW YORK (AP) — It was a good year in the ratings for cable news networks. Or a rough one. It depends on your perspective.

Fox News Channel continued its dominance, with an average viewership that exceeded CNN and MSNBC combined in primetime and for the entire day, the Nielsen ratings company said Wednesday. Fox typically had 1.87 million viewers in primetime this year. The top 13 programs in cable news all aired on Fox.

Yet Fox was alone among the cable news networks in losing viewers — down 8 percent in primetime and 5 percent for the full day, Nielsen said. The 2010 midterm election year was particularly engaging for Republicans, who make up a big part of Fox’s audience.

CNN was up 17 percent in primetime viewership with a revamped lineup that includes a double dose of Anderson Cooper and Piers Morgan replacing Larry King. CNN is third behind Fox and MSNBC in prime time but second for the day as a whole.

CNN’s rivals acknowledge its gains but are quick to point out that last year represented CNN’s worst year ever in the ratings.

MSNBC can take pride in surviving the exit of its most popular primetime personality, Keith Olbermann, who defected to Current. The network is up 2 percent over last year in its primetime average, Nielsen said.

However, MSNBC is down 11 percent for the 8 p.m. time slot, which Olbermann occupied. Along with the continued popularity of Rachel Maddow at 9 p.m., MSNBC is showing rating gains at 10 p.m. because it replaced the Olbermann rerun that used to air at that time with an original show, currently hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell.

HLN, the former CNN Headline News, is up 20 percent over last year, with its popular blanket coverage of Casey Anthony’s trial a big factor.