WOO! HOO!
Break out the victory champagne!
Anderson Cooper has "surged" in the cable news ratings to an "amazing" 16th place. Why, he even beat out the ratings caboose of MSNBC known as Ed Schultz. The way the Huffington Post carried on with thick helpings of hype, you would have thought that Cooper had just beaten Fox News' top rated Bill O'Reilly instead of the dismal Ed Show. A very hopeful Huffington Post begins its article by posing this question:
Is CNN experiencing a ratings rebound?
Actually Anderson Cooper experienced a ratings anomaly in February due to all the publicity from getting roughed up by an Egyptian crowd in Cairo while covering the downfall of Hosni Mubarak. However, rather than toss cold water on the Huffington Post's joy in Anderson Cooper experiencing a very temporary ratings blip, let us amuse ourselves by observing their joy at Cooper's "surge" to #16:
The network had a very strong February —bolstered by its coverage of the wave of popular revolts in the Middle East — growing 31% in total viewers and 55% in the A25-54 demo in weekday primetime compared to February 2010 ratings.
The biggest success was Anderson Cooper, who found himself at the center of the network's Egypt coverage. Cooper topped MSNBC for the first time since June 2010. He beat Ed Schultz in the A25-54 demo (305,000 viewers vs. 234,000) and in total viewers (855,000 vs. 827,000).
To place things in perspective, let us note that Cooper's Fox News competitor in his 10 PM EST time slot is Greta van Susteren who at #6 in the ratings attracts 1.623 million viewers which overwhelms Cooper's 854,000 total viewers. Even the Huffington Post had to take a painful break from it's Anderson Cooper hype to very briefly note that Fox News crushes its competitors at MSNBC and CNN:
...and both networks still lag far behind Fox News, which beats its two primary competitors combined.
However, your humble correspondent prefers not to be a killjoy. Let us all rejoice in the amazing ratings "surge" of Anderson Cooper:
He's #16!
He's #16!
