Hurricane Sandy Gives Cable TV Ratings Spike

Hurricane Sandy brought strong winds, heavy rains, and a ton of viewers stranded at home watching the news.

By Monday morning, the storm pushed other news stories aside and dominated broadcast and cable news channels throughout the day and evening. Hurricane Sandy brought a ratings spike to cable news channels, with Fox News bringing in the most total viewers and CNN winning in the coveted A25-54 demographic in both total day and primetime programming.

Throughout its daylong programming (6:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Fox News brought in a total of 2.28 million total viewers, with 528,000 viewers in the demo. CNN won the demo, bringing in 546,000 viewers and a total of 1.4 million total viewers.

During primetime, Fox News brought in a total of 3.5 million viewers, with 875,000 viewers in the demographic. CNN won the demo by bringing in more than 1 million viewer, and a total of 3.4 million viewers. MSNBC came in third place, with a total of 1.4 million viewers, and 477,000 in the demo.