Fox News Leads Katrina Ratings

The all-news networks continued to draw more viewers as the scale of the disaster spawned by Hurricane Katrina worsens each day.

Fox News Channel set a new primetime record for 2005 Wednesday night, drawing 4.9 million viewers, compared to Cable News Network’s 3.6 million and MSNBC’s 1.5 million.

Fox News averaged 2.8 million viewers on Wednesday during the total-day period, topping CNN’s 2.0 million viewers and MSNBC’s 736,000.

Since Sunday, Fox News has led the all-news network in ratings, averaging a 2.4 total-day rating and 2.1 million households. CNN has averaged a 1.7 rating and 1.5 million households from Sunday through Wednesday, followed by MSNBC’s average 0.7 rating and 572,000 households.

CNBC averaged a 0.1 rating and 122,000 households from Sunday through Wednesday, and Headline News has averaged a 0.3 rating and 297,000 households.

In primetime, Fox News averaged a 3.6 rating and 3.1 million households from Sunday through Wednesday, followed by CNN (2.8 rating, 2.5 million households) and MSNBC (1.2 rating, 988,000 households).