CNN’s prime-time ratings fall to third for first time

CNN, the network that invented 24-hour news, for the first time has finished in third place in weeknight prime-time cable news ratings among all U.S. viewers.

The Atlanta-based channel was surpassed by MSNBC in Monday-Friday prime-time viewership during the most recent quarter, according to the TV ratings service Nielsen, and it continued to lose ground in the 8-11 p.m. slot to No. 1 Fox News Channel.

The ratings are based on April, May and June viewership.

CNN countered Tuesday that, based on monthly ratings alone, the network just finished the best June in its 29-year history.

But in prime time over the three-month period, according to Nielsen, an average 2,484,000 Americans got their news and views from Fox, 946,000 got it from MSNBC, and 939,000 got it from CNN.

That continued a ratings decline in prime time for CNN, which once had 24-hour cable news all to itself. According to Nielsen, CNN’s prime-time viewership is down 10 percent from the same quarter a year ago, while MSNBC’s is up 18 percent and Fox’s is up 35 percent.

Weeknight prime time has increasingly become a cable news battleground of opinions, analysis and personalities, as opposed to breaking news coverage —- where, for instance, CNN beat both MSNBC and Fox in ratings for its coverage of the death of singer Michael Jackson.

According to Nielsen, 3.2 million viewers watched Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor” at 8 p.m., while 1.2 million watched MSNBC’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” and 800,000 watched CNN’s “Campbell Brown.”

At 9, Fox’s “Hannity” beat “Larry King Live” by a two to one margin at 9 p.m., while MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” finished third to King, but by a narrowing margin.

Among all cable channels, Fox News is the third most-watched, according to Nielsen, behind two entertainment networks, USA and TNT. The latter is also owned by CNN parent Turner Broadcasting.

Jeremy Gaines, a spokesman for MSNBC, attributed his network’s prime-time surge to the successful launch of the “Rachel Maddow Show” last September and “the network’s single-minded focus on politics.”