CNN scored a big ratings win among the cable news networks covering the Inaugural events Monday, but the numbers declined significantly from four years ago for all the networks.
In terms of the cable news networks, CNN was ahead during the time when the oath of office was administered and President Obama delivered his speech, and the usual cable leader, Fox News, was well behind. That was widely expected, given the conservative political preferences of much of the Fox News audience.
For the period of the oath and the speech, CNN averaged 3.136 million viewers, with MSNBC second at 2.273 million. Fox was third with 1.316 million. CNN also dominated among the viewers that news advertisers pay to reach, those between the ages of 25 and 54. CNN had 1.107 million viewers in that group, to 706,000 for MSNBC and just 294,000 for Fox News.
For the prime-time hours, which included coverage of the inaugural balls, CNN was again well ahead, with 3.573 million viewers. Fox, which is always dominant n the 8-to-11 o’clock evening hours, trailed with 1.666 million viewers. MSNBC had even fewer, 1.365 million. But Fox was last again in the 25-54 category with just 254,000 viewers in prime time, while CNN had 1.266 million and MSNBC had 456,000.
In all cases the numbers were a huge drop-off from the same time periods in 2009. CNN was down for the period covering the oath and speech, from 8.119 million total viewers four years ago; that’s a decline of 61 percent. Four years ago Fox News had 5.291 million, meaning the falloff this year was 75 percent. And MSNBC dropped 25 per cent, from 3.022 million.
In the 25-54 group the declines were similar. CNN was off 67 percent; MNSBC dropped 37 percent and Fox News fell by 82 percent.
