• by David Kaplan , December 15, 2004

With American viewers transfixed by the Scott Peterson trial, the nail-biting announcement of the jury's decision to sentence him to death helped news channels across the board.

But Court TV claims its coverage of the Peterson sentencing verdict attracted over 2.4 million viewers-- allowing it to pass Fox News as the number one news network, according to representatives for the Time Warner/Liberty Media-owned "investigation channel."

According to a Court TV statement, the network delivered huge 2.5 household and 1.0 Adults 18-49 ratings as the sentence was announced, equating to 2.4 million total viewers.

"These ratings made Court TV the number one news network, topping Fox News Channel in both household and Adults 18-49," a representative for Court TV said.

Fox News sources, however, had a different view of whether they were beat or not.

"Court TV is attempting to take a victory lap on Peterson ratings for households only, and we beat them in viewers and everywhere else--it's literally a window of 5 minutes--and we beat them in every hour of the verdict coverage on Monday," a Fox News source said.

According to Fox News' PR department, during total coverage of the Peterson sentencing--from 4-6:45 p.m. on Monday--FNC beat Court TV across the board (in HH, P2+, P18-34, P18-49 & P25-54). FNC averaged 2.1 million P2+ versus Court TV's 1.7 million P2+.

In addition, FNC beat Court TV in HH, P2+, & P25-54 for Total Day & Prime on the day of the sentencing. In Total Day, FNC averaged 1.3 million P2+ versus Court's 1.0 million, and in Prime, FNC averaged 2.4 million P2+ versus Court's 1.3 million.

During the 4:45-5 p.m. quarter hour (when the sentencing was read), FNC averaged 2.248 million P2+ versus Court TV's 2.215 million P2+.

For the most part, Court TV acknowledges that FNC tends to beat them.

"Beginning November 30th and running through mid-December, Court TV achieved a .8 household daytime rating, trailing only Fox News' .9 household rating among the news networks and allowing Court TV to rank 4th among all ad-supported cable networks," a Court TV spokeswoman said.

"We get this all the time," a Fox source said. "For example, whenever there's a tornado somewhere, the Weather Channel makes a big deal of the fact that they beat us for about 5 minutes."