Split Ratings Decision For New Hampshire
Fox News Takes Total Day; CNN Clinches Primetime With Primary Coverage
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 1/10/2008 10:25:00 AM
The Clinton and McCain camps claimed victory in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday. Now with the Nielsen precints reporting, Fox News Channel and CNN can also put one in their columns.
Fox News took total day, averaging almost 1.28 million viewers on Jan. 8, according to Nielsen Media Research data, ahead of 1.04 million for CNN. MSNBC was third with 623,000 viewers on average.
During primetime coverage of the presidential primaries from the Granite State, CNN set the pace with 3.28 million viewers on average. That was a 182% jump from its coverage of the 2004 New Hampshire primary.
Fox News scored a 57% increase from the 2004 event, counting 3.02 million viewers on average during the 8-11 p.m. time slot on Tuesday night, its second highest total of the 2007-08 political season, behind the 3.14 million watchers for the Sept. 5 Republican candidate debate. On Jan. 8, Fox News notched 866,000 adults 25 to 54, topping the 854,000 from that group with the aforementioned forum.
MSNBC pulled in 1.61 million average viewers in Tuesday primetime, a 146% leap from the 2004 New Hampshire primary.
While Sens. Hillary C
linton (D.-N.Y.) and John McCain (R.-Ariz.) were able to bask in the afterglow of their return to contention in the hunt for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, viewer rolls for the networks diminished the next day.
Fox News saw its total-day average subside 9% to 1.16 million, while CNN and MSNBC sustained 37% and 49% hits to 657,000 and 317,000, respectively.
The fall-off was steeper in primetime: Fox decreased 36% to 1.92 million from the previous night; CNN dropped 68% to 1.04 million; and MSNBC declined 66% to 542,000.
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