CableTV News Ratings Spiked Friday

Viewership of the cable news network soared Friday night following the terrorist attacks in Paris, and ratings remained above average on Saturday as well.

Variety reports CNN was the demo leader, carrying just about every hour from Friday night to Saturday night and seeing the biggest gains among the networks, while Fox News led in total viewers.

According to preliminary Nielsen estimates, roughly 9.1 million viewers were watching Fox News Channel (4.4 million), CNN (3.2 million), MSNBC (1.2 million) and HLN (308,000) from 8 to 11 p.m. on Friday — a 153% surge over the average for the prior four weeks (3.6 million). By comparison, roughly 20.3 million viewers were watching the Big Four broadcasters on the night, with ABC’s “20/20” (5.1 million) and NBC’s “Dateline” (3.6 million) devoting their hours to Paris coverage.

CNN averaged 1.3 million adults 25-54 during primetime on Friday to edge out Fox News (1.2 million), with both nets miles ahead of MSNBC (353,000) and HLN (120,000). CNN drew more than eight times the demo audience it did over the previous four Fridays (153,000), and FNC drew more than four times its recent Friday average (267,000). CNN was the demo leader in all but one hour from 8 p.m. Friday to 9 p.m. Saturday, with FNC edging ahead at 8 a.m. on Saturday.