Winner of the Week:
While the majority of cable news shows ticked up for the week, The Rachel Maddow Show saw a huge surge. It's typically the highest-rated program on cable news, but it wasn't even close this time around. Topping distant rival Cuomo Prime Time by 0.08 and it typical runner-up, Hannity, by 0.12, this is one of TRMS's best results to date, despite its network losing out to CNN in primetime for the week. There's really no competition for the title of Winner of the Week. But I do need to give a special shout-out to Velshi & Ruhle for finally finding its way out of last place!
Loser of the Week:
CNN and MSNBC had pretty great weeks. Fox News... didn't. The network fell to third place in primetime, and it saw no help from the huge news stories of the week. The struggle showed the most in The Ingraham Angle, the lowest-rated program in primetime for the week. While it's typically an OK performer that always lags in the middle of the primetime pack, taking dead last for the week is a very disappointing result for it. Other shows rated lower, but that doesn't make the Ingraham Angle's rough week any better.
And now introducing the newly improved Rebecca Takes on the Cable News chart, featuring the introduction of Hardball, New Day and Cuomo Prime Time, as well as displays of the weekly highs and lows for all twenty covered shows.
What do you think of the weekly cable news developments? WHo are your winners and losers? Let me know in the comments below!