The Olbermann Steamroller Still Rolling

Ratings for the cable news nets have been released and October 2006 to October 2005 comparisons again look sweet for Countdown.

MSNBC scored hefty gains driven by Olbermann’s 61% rise in viewers 25-54. His total viewer increase was 67%, while O’Reilly’s dropped (again) 22%. Countdown improved more than any of the other news programs. O’Reilly was the 2nd biggest decliner (after Greta). In fact, Olbermann gained more total viewers than all of the other shows combined.

Here are the network numbers for total viewers:

Total day: FNC CNN MSNBC HLN CNBC
Oct. ’06: 786 490 286 231 176
Oct. ’05: 948 533 252 215 158
% change: -17% -8% +13% +7% +11%

Primetime: FNC CNN MSNBC HLN CNBC
Oct. ’06: 1,291 720 418 357 170
Oct. ’05: 1,715 824 359 366 132
% change: -25% -13% +16% -2% +29%

MSNBC chief, Dan Abrams, seems to be learning the right lessons:

“Keith Olbermann is the right person at the right time, and doing it in the right way. This is a really good sign for MSNBC on the whole. I think that we’ve found a voice to some degree.”

I think your audience agrees with you, Dan.

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