FNC's Ratings Continue to Climb, MSNBC's and Olbermann's Fall

While July has been another banner month for the Fox News Channel, the good folks at MSNBC might want to rethink their current lineup.

In the all important demographic group aged 25 to 54, FNC was up 48 percent in total daily viewers, and an astounding 70 percent in prime time compared to July 2008.

By contrast, MSNBC's take of this demo was unchanged in prime time and down seven percent in total daily viewers.

The liberal network's top personality Keith Olbermann saw his July demo numbers decline to their lowest level since December 2007.

As reported moments ago by TVNewser (h/t Bret Baier): 

- FNC's audience expanded in all categories during July 2009, besting CNN and MSNBC combined in viewership (for both Total Day and Prime) according to Nielsen Media Research.

- In the key 25-54 demographic, FNC posted the largest gains among all cable news networks in both Total Day and Prime Time – increasing an extraordinary 48% and 70% respectively when compared to July 2008.

- Among basic cable networks, FNC ranked third for the month in prime time viewership behind only USA Network and TNT, with CNN and MSNBC lagging behind at 15th and 26th, respectively, while continuing to battle each other for third place in cable news.

- FNC also secured nine out of the top 10 rated programs in cable news for the month based on total viewership. The O'Reilly Factor marked #1 for 104 consecutive months in July and led all programs with 3,075,000 viewers, ending the month up 37% over July 2008. Hannity was second, up 41%. Other notables include: On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (up 60%); Glenn Beck (up 120%); The FOX Report with Shepard Smith (up 36%)

- In the key 25-54 demographic, FNC expanded upon an already dominant lead in Prime Time averaging 530,000 viewers surging 70% compared with CNN's 377,000 (up 40%) and MSNBC's 252,000 (flat). In total day, FNC averaged 301,000 (up 48%) compared to CNN’s 231,000 (up 39%) and MSNBC's 143,000 (down 7%). Meanwhile, CNN’s latest failure in Prime Time, Campbell Brown, finished in fourth place in 25-54 behind FNC, HLN and MSNBC at 8:00pm ET.

- In Prime Time, FNC bested CNN and MSNBC combined with an average of 2,071,000 viewers (up 43%) during July 2009, compared with CNN's 1,127,000 (up 39%) and MSNBC’s 738,000 (up 24%). In total day, FNC also rated higher than the competition combined with 1,138,000 total viewers (up 36%) compared to CNN’s 723,000 (up 45%) and MSNBC's 396,000 (up 12%).

As for Olbermann and MSNBC:

MSNBC slipped to fourth place in total day A25-54 demo viewers. The network's most popular show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, is down 11% year-over-year; second in Total Viewers, third in the A25-54 demo. July 2009 was Countdown's lowest month in A25-54 viewers since Dec. '07. (Olbermann was off 7 of the 20 days of the ratings period).

As for MSNBC's new shows, they are down double-digits compared to July '08:

• Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan (9-11amET) is down 14% in the demo compared to MSNBC Live in July '08 (87K v 101K).

• Dr. Nancy (Noon-1pmET) is down 38% in the demo compared to MSNBC Live in July '08 (53K v 86K).

"Morning Joe" showed growth, year-over-year, up 15% in Total Viewers and up 7% in the demo.

Fascinating that the show with a pseudo-conservative host is growing in viewers, don't you agree?