The 25-54 news demo is king in cable news. That is the metric everyone looks at because that is where the money is. For whatever reason, advertisers believe that people in that particular age group are more easily duped into buying their junk, so those aged 25-54 are the gold standard in the news business. By that measurement, MSNBC is collapsing. Nevertheless, when it comes to total viewers, during the all-important primetime hours, MSNBC is still beating CNN in total viewers.
Below are the numbers from all of last week. The first number is average total primetime viewers, the second is the 25-54 demo. As you can see, all the talk around CNN’s resurgence is more than a little overhyped. (In total total day viewers, CNN usually edges MSNBC, but not by much).
FOXN: 2,161 – 388
CNN: 467 – 191
MSNBC: 596 – 114
FOXN: 2,335 – 447
CNN: 458 – 120
MSNBC: 651 – 108
FOXN: 2,467 – 434
CNN: 388 – 156
MSNBC: 661 – 81
FOXN: 2,379 – 508
CNN: 364 – 132
MSNBC: 502 – 100
FOXN: 2,040 – 388
CNN: 392 – 106 175
MSNBC: 476 – 95
Advertisers might not care about total viewers, but cable providers sure do, as should any cable news network eager to have any kind of impact. The more eyeballs, the more voters you take your message to. MSNBC and CNN are both left-wing propaganda networks. MSNBC and CNN are both losing handily to Fox News in both total and demo viewers. But the naked truth is that during their primetime hours, fewer voters are tuning into CNN than they are MSNBC.
CNN’s race-baiting, airplane-missing, whale-saving, anti-Republican, anti-Israel narrative rampages might be making advertisers happier, but during the most important time of day, those narratives are not drawing more viewers than another left-wing network that is currently sinking like a cement block.
Some comeback.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC