Nothing like a good debate about drug policy to bring in a crowd, and Crossfire and its hosts managed to pass the dutchie pon the left hand side, so to speak, and got more Twitter mentions than any other cable news show on Friday.
Category Archives: CNN
Cable News Twitter Ratings for Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Tuesday was a good day for Piers Morgan as he swept both the best hour and best day in Twitter mentions.
Cable News Twitter Ratings for December 11, 2013 — A Win for Cooper
Anderson Cooper wins the best hour on Wednesday (1647 mentions), just nosing out The Ed Show (1614) and All-In with Chris Hayes (1611). One thing that’s interesting is that Anderson’s Twitter demographics skew female (56%), but not as skewed as time-slot competitor Hayes’ demos are in the other direction (61% male).
I’ve pointed this out before, but it bears repeating: Part of MSNBC’s challenges, as seen through the lens of Twitter, is that its gender mix is uneven throughout primetime. The Ed Show starts with a perfect balance (50-50), and then MSNBC starts to slide more and more male, starting at 55% for Al Sharpton, moving on to 59% for Hardball, and then ending up 61% for Chris Hayes. Then, abruptly, it snaps back to 50-50 for Rachel Maddow and even swings a bit female for Lawrence O’Donnell (53%).
It’s true that other networks have more extremely polarized demographics, but some of those other networks are nonetheless far ahead of MSNBC in the Nielsen ratings. Whatever is driving MSNBC’s audience to swing from balanced to male and back again is driving away female viewers from the heart of primetime. By the time we get to Chris Hayes, enough female viewers have turned off MSNBC that his ratings take a hit; his audience does not dovetail with Rachel Maddow’s, and so not enough of them tune in early to catch Chris as well. Fix that, and his ratings should jump.
Happy two weeks until Christmas, everyone. Remember, the real panic doesn’t start for a week, so finish shopping now and avoid the last minute madness!
Cable News Twitter Ratings for November 15, 2013 — Ed Show and Anderson Cooper
MSNBC’s The Ed Show returned to its frequent best-in-hour slot on Friday, but Anderson Cooper, still riding on the strength of his Philippine typhoon coverage, won the best-in-day. Cooper’s win is no doubt facilitated by the international aspect of his story; that most of the tweets did not occur during the US broadcasts of his show is a clear sign that his conversation is now world wide.
Whenever I write an article about the great Twitter response CNN shows get — especially Piers Morgan — I inevitably get responses that trash talk CNN for getting low ratings in the US. But for some of CNN’s personalities, their audience (and the revenues they generate) are world-wide, and judging them purely on US results is ignorant. CNN could afford to send Anderson Cooper to the Philippines not just because of the US market, but because of the worldwide market he provides content to…
Cable News Twitter Ratings for November 14, 2013 — Anderson Cooper in Philippines
Anderson Cooper’s coverage of the Philippines has driven his Twitter ratings into first place for any cable news shows, giving him the best-in-hour and best-in-day wins. It’s a strong sign that when world events turn CNN’s way — towards non-political events — the public turns to CNN for coverage. The trick, of course, is to hang on to the audience when world events quiet down. But for now, CNN is dominating the discussion on Twitter and Anderson Cooper is leading CNN.