TV Cable Ratings: Brian William's '11th Hour' In-Demo Struggles

Brian Williams

MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” has struggled in the key news demographic of adults 25-54 since it premiered two weeks ago. That is the statistic that is likely to determine whether or not Williams receives a permanent primetime show.

According to The Wrap, Williams averaged 235,000 viewers in the key demo from Sept. 6-20, which trails “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,” which averaged 293,000 demo viewers from 11-11:30 p.m. ET over the same time period.

Ratings juggernaut “The O’Reilly Factor” beat both CNN and MSNBC’s live shows with a replay of its 8 p.m. edition, averaging 367,000 for the first half of its repeat. However, the late-night repeat of O’Reilly regularly finishes among the Top 10 cable news shows, so this isn’t surprising.

Also Read: Brian Williams to Anchor Late-Night MSNBC Show
What’s surprising is that Williams struggled despite a strong performance in total viewers. Williams new show averaged 1.09 million viewers, compared to 761,000 for CNN during the same time period. But total viewers don’t pay the bills. Advertisers look at 25-54 year olds when deciding where to spend their cash.

Through the first nine episodes of “The 11th Hour,” the show only beat CNN from 11-11:30 ET in the key demo twice. Both victories came during the show’s first three nights and Lemon has won six straight.

Williams’ show is down two percent compared to MSNBC’s 11-11:30 programming from Aug. 2016, but up a whopping 133 percent compared to the “All In with Chris Hayes” repeats that aired in that time slot back in Sept. 2015. In laymen’s terms, he’s crushing a show that nobody watched from a year ago but losing to the show he recently replaced.

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