'Red Eye' Gets More 'Demo' Viewers at 3AM Than CNN Does at 8PM

October 6th, 2009 11:20 AM

CNN and Campbell Brown must be awfully proud of themselves.

After all, Brown's prime time television program which airs at 8PM ET is getting fewer viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 than Fox New's "Red Eye."

Here's the punch line: "Red Eye" is on at 3AM when most people in the country are asleep.

As reported by Mediaite Tuesday (h/t Hot Air headlines):

Fox News’ 3amET comedy/news hybrid Red Eye is in a league of its own when it comes to cable news shows. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a player in the ratings.

Despite its late (or early, depending on your sleep habits) start time, the ratings for the show continue to improve, and surprisingly, top some cable news competition you might not expect. [...]

Red Eye averaged 432,000 total viewers and 202,000 in the demo. Let’s deal with the demo first – CNN’s 8pmET show, hosted by Campbell Brown, averaged 191,000 in the demo. Let’s just let that one sink in – Fox News had more people in the all important A25-54 demographic watching their channel at three in the morning (east coast time) than CNN had for the show that leads off their prime time. This says as much about Fox News as it does about CNN. Wow.

In total viewers (and demo), Red Eye beat the cable news competition three hours later. All three other morning shows, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNN’s American Morning and HLN’s Morning Express had less viewers in September.

Yes, 202,000 demo viewers is very respectable on cable. Consider that on Thursday, the following programs DIDN'T attract that many viewers 25-54:

Morning programs (6:00AM-9:00AM) P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
American Morning- 362,000 viewers (138,000) (203,000)
Morning Joe- 335,000 viewers (116,000) (177,000)
Squawk Box- 126,000 viewers (63,000) (86,000)
Morning Express w/ Meade- 255,000 viewers (157,000) (154,000)

5PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Situation Room-657,000 viewers (156,000) (210,000)
Hardball w/ Chris Matthews-576,000 viewers (121,000) (248,000)
Fast Money-310,000 viewers (98,000) (129,000)
Prime News-301,000 viewers (116,000) (149,000)

6PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Situation Room-727,000 viewers (151,000) (236,000)
Ed Show-629,000 viewers (192,000) (286,000)
Mad Money -224,000 viewers (93,000) (108,000)
Prime News - 323,000 viewers (133,000) (180,000)

7PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Lou Dobbs Tonight-707,000 viewers (170,000) (256,000)
Kudlow Report -144,000 viewers (a scratch w/50,000) (54,000)
Issues- 411,000 viewers (170,000) (258,000)

8PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Campbell Brown - 767,000 viewers (197,000) (347,000)
New Age of Wal-Mart (8:00-8:30) - a scratch w/114,000 viewers (a scratch w/44,000) (a scratch w/46,000)
Put It On The Map (8:30 - 9:00pm) - a scratch w/79,000 viewers (a scratch w/32,000) (a scratch w/36,000)

9 PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
New Age of Wal-Mart - 148,000 viewers (59,000) (54,000)
Joy Behar- 542,000 viewers (149,000) (225,000)