Cable Numbers Spike During Bin Laden News

CNN-News

News of Osama Bin Laden's death by U.S. forces jumped cable news ratings on Sunday night.

For five hours -- 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. -- CNN's ratings shot up over sixfold to 4.14 million total viewers, with 2.1 million viewers in the key adults 25-54 demographic. By way of comparison, CNN posted an average 600,000 total viewers in prime time for the month of April.

CNN numbers were tops among all cable news networks.

Fox News Channel came in at a distant second place with 2.85 million viewers and 1.27 million among key 25-54 viewers. MSNBC was next, at 1.58 million viewers and 800,000 among 25-54 viewers. Fox was up from its 1.9 million total viewer average in April; MSNBC's April average was 800,000.

At the 11 p.m. hour EST, when President Obama made the announcement, CNN peaked at 7.8 million total viewers and 3.9 million in 25-54; Fox News was at 4.8 million and 2.1 million among 25-54 viewers. MSNBC was at 2.3 million total viewers and 1.1 million in 25-54.

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Broadcasters also spent a healthy chunk of their Sunday prime time preempting regular programming for Osama Bin Laden coverage. Pacific time zone markets had the most time with Bin Laden coverage.

Although specific ratings data was not released by press time, early Nielsen estimates say CBS did the best among the top four broadcast networks in terms of overall viewers for Bin Laden/entertainment programming. at 9.5 million viewers. ABC was at 8.7 million, NBC, 7.4 million, and Fox, 4.6 million.

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