Ousted Fox News host Bill O'Reilly had more than twice the viewership of his closest news competitor in his time slot in much of Minnesota.
From 7 to 8 p.m., "The O'Reilly Factor" had a .6 rating, which translated to an average 9,000 viewers per night in the Twin Cities market in February. Those numbers were among 25-54-year-olds.
His closest competitor, Anderson Cooper on rival cable news channel CNN, captured 4,000 viewers in that same time slot and demographic.
Among viewers aged 35-64, O'Reilly did even better. He had a 1.2 rating, or 20,000 viewers, compared to 8,000 for Cooper.
In January, O'Reilly's numbers were higher for the 35-64 crowd. He had a 1.7 rating and 29,000 viewers.
"Pretty amazing for a market that traditionally votes Democratic," said media consultant Sue Ward at "The Media Ward" in Minneapolis.
Not only did he win in the cable news category, he won his time slot for all cable programming. WWE wrestling on the USA Network pulled a 1.0 rating, or 18,000 viewers, against O'Reilly in February among the older demographic.
The numbers reflect 1.75 million viewers in the Twin Cities Nielsen Designated Marketing Area, the geography most advertisers and television stations use. The area covers the Twin Cities metro north to Duluth, south to Rochester and west to the South Dakota border. The bulk of the viewers are in the Twin Cities.
Rochelle Olson
