With the start of the new year, I thought I’d take a look at how MSNBC’s year on Twitter has been. Not all of MSNBC, but the primetime (and weekend) shows that have been on the air for the bulk of the year: Hardball, The Ed show, Politics Nation, The Rachel Maddow Show, Last Word, All In, Up with (Chris/Steve), and the Melissa Harris-Perry Show.

Let’s start with the big chart — the mentions each show received, broken down by month:

Click to enlarge – it’s worth it

At a glance you can see some big trends — September saw a spike in conversation and then a drift back towards normal levels.

But inside the data are some interesting tidbits. Let’s start with The Ed Show, which was abruptly taken off the air, then put into a weekend purgatory slot before returning to prime time:

It’s a big chart for Big Ed, so click to see it all.

You can see clearly that April was a lost month for Ed, and then the next three months depressed his mentions while he was stuck in the weekend slot. But upon his return to prime-time, Ed picked up where he left off in terms of Twitter mentions — that’s pretty amazing given how his show was handled.

Of course, when Ed got moved out of the 8pm weekday slot, Chris Hayes moved in, recasting his Up with Chris Hayes show into All-In with Chris Hayes. “Up” was re-hosted with Steve Kornacki and continued without interruption.

But the fans of the show seemed to have moved over with Chris to week days, as the mentions chart show:

Click to enlarge. It’s like the large type edition.

The best of Steve is struggling to catch up to the worst of Chris, while Chris’s mentions look like they’ve continued unaffected by the move.

One last observation: there’s nothing like a whiff of scandal to drive the discussion on Twitter. And at the end of the year, Melissa Harris-Perry’s show held a discussion of the Romney family Christmas card that prompted Ms. Harris-Perry to issue an apology. That produced a huge year-in spike in Twitter mentions for the show:

You probably get the gist of it right here, but go ahead and click to see a bigger version if you like.

That was about a tripling her normal peak mentions, and the buzz blazed right through the end of the year. It will be interesting to see if it all dies down before everybody returns from their holiday haze…

Happy new year to MSNBC, its fans, and its viewers. I wish you all health, wealth, and prosperity. I’ll resume my daily ratings as the networks return to their normal schedules, and I hope you’ll check in from time to time to see how everyone is doing.

The Kelly File is proving to be a strong social media participant with another best-in-hour win on Monday. Megyn Kellly’s audience was mostly animated by a discussion about Obama skipping the events for the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, although a discussion about Obamacare was a close second.

I had expected Anderson Cooper to claim the top spot based upon his strong results last week and the ongoing saga in Toronto. But Ms. Kelly managed to drive a (slightly) larger Twitter conversation. Of course, Fox News regularly beats all its competition in the Nielsen ratings, so it has a larger base to start with, but Fox News views do tend to be less active on Twitter.

Piers Morgan returned to his normal spot of best-in-day, even though only about 7% of his mentions occurred during the live broadcast of his show. As usual, the world-wide audience lifted his counts.

I’ll also note the passing of Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell after its sudden cancellation by FXX. It was a great show, but putting it up against Comedy Central’s powerhouse, The Daily Show, was a questionable way to foster an audience. I think if Totally Biased had been dropped into the 10:30 ET slot, instead, it would have flourished. Let’s hope the talented Mr. Bell finds another broadcast outlet for his (and his talented cast’s) wit soon.

Note that all times are US Eastern Time. See notes at end for further explanations. For earlier articles on cable news twitter ratings, please see this.

Cable News Ratings for 2013-11-18

Top Shows for the day:

Category	Mentions	Show
Most Mentions During Hour	2109	Fox News: The Kelly File
Most Mentions During day	12475	CNN: Piers Morgan Live

Overall ratings by network

Network	Tweet Count	Unique Tweeters	Reach	Male	Female
CNN	40445	29306	303051588	57 %	43 %
MSNBC	32722	13640	122260454	54 %	46 %
Fox News	23204	12513	90870410	61 %	39 %
Comedy Central	3721	3146	11216438	60 %	40 %
E	2969	2349	19817512	26 %	74 %
HLN	1650	1005	7964405	38 %	62 %
HBO	1209	965	2299170	64 %	36 %
FXX	331	276	731785	56 %	44 %

For networks that are not predominantly news, only news(-like) shows are included. See the detailed listings below for precise shows

Most popular hastags

Hashtag	Count
#blackfish	3111
#afc	2786
#tcot	2480
#lnyhbt	2295
#maddow	2001
#kellyfile	1929
#inners	1892
#edshow	1689
#iran	1483
#obamacare	1438

Ratings for individual time slots

Ratings for Weekdays 12am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
Fox News	Hannity	124	3855	60%	40%

Ratings for Weekdays 1am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
Fox News	Stossel	22	288	72%	28%

Ratings for Weekdays 2am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
Fox News	Fox News Sunday	4	63	57%	43%

Ratings for Weekdays 3am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
Fox News	Huckabee	1	75	63%	37%

Ratings for Weekdays 4am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
Fox News	#MediaBuzz	1	561	73%	27%

Ratings for Weekdays 5am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	EarlyStartCNN	44	122	34%	66%
Fox News	FoxFriendsFirst	48	106	67%	33%
MSNBC	First Look (5-5:30)	1	1	100%	0%
MSNBC	Way Too Early (5:30-6)	17	30	36%	64%

Ratings for Weekdays 6am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	New Day	107	1547	51%	49%
Fox News	Fox And Friends	111	834	62%	38%
HLN	Morning Express w/Robin Meade	15	221	66%	34%
MSNBC	Morning Joe	529	3135	49%	51%

Ratings for Weekdays 7am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	New Day	390	1547	51%	49%
Fox News	Fox And Friends	135	834	62%	38%
HLN	Morning Express w/Robin Meade	18	221	66%	34%
MSNBC	Morning Joe	749	3135	49%	51%

Ratings for Weekdays 8am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	New Day	372	1547	51%	49%
Fox News	Fox And Friends	179	834	62%	38%
HLN	Morning Express w/Robin Meade	16	221	66%	34%
MSNBC	Morning Joe	742	3135	49%	51%

Ratings for Weekdays 9am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	News Room	13	42	45%	55%
Fox News	America’s Newsroom	18	60	66%	34%
HLN	Morning Express w/Robin Meade	35	221	66%	34%
MSNBC	The Daily Run Down	557	1354	54%	46%

Ratings for Weekdays 10am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	News Room	6	42	45%	55%
Fox News	America’s Newsroom	21	60	66%	34%
HLN	Morning Express w/Robin Meade	3	221	66%	34%
MSNBC	Jansing & Co.	155	245	64%	36%

Ratings for Weekdays 11am

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	Legal View w/Banfield	20	32	58%	42%
Fox News	Happening Now	9	68	81%	19%
HLN	Morning Express w/Robin Meade	13	221	66%	34%
MSNBC	MSNBC Live w/ Thomas Roberts	236	330	50%	50%

Ratings for Weekdays 12pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	Around the World (News Room)	0	42	45%	55%
Fox News	Happening Now	20	68	81%	19%
HLN	Raising America	0	2	0%	100%
MSNBC	Now w/Alex Wagner	294	1017	62%	38%

Ratings for Weekdays 1pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	News Room	2	42	45%	55%
Fox News	America’s News HQ	7	13	73%	27%
HLN	News Now	0	6	33%	67%
MSNBC	Andrea Mitchell Reports	83	331	52%	48%

Ratings for Weekdays 2pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	News Room	1	42	45%	55%
Fox News	The Real Story w/Gretchen Carlson	139	282	65%	35%
HLN	News Now	0	6	33%	67%
MSNBC	News Nation w/ Tamron Hall	122	273	54%	46%

Ratings for Weekdays 3pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	News Room	2	42	45%	55%
Fox News	Shepard Smith Reporting	28	136	56%	44%
HLN	News Now	0	6	33%	67%
MSNBC	The Cycle	233	515	55%	45%
MSNBC	The Cycle (w/ Host Accounts)	299	1266	58%	42%

Ratings for Weekdays 4pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	The Lead w/Jake Tapper	125	1040	69%	31%
Fox News	Your World	109	328	63%	37%
HLN	Now In America	0	0	0%	0%
MSNBC	Martin Bashir	1661	4543	56%	44%

Ratings for Weekdays 5pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	The Situation Room	11	274	58%	42%
Fox News	The Five	285	409	66%	34%
Fox News	The Five w/Hosts	845	2633	68%	32%
HLN	Evening Express	0	3	67%	33%
MSNBC	The Ed Show	2030	4007	48%	52%

Ratings for Weekdays 6pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	Crossfire (6:30 – 7)	0	0	0%	0%
CNN	The Situation Room (6 – 6:30)	12	274	58%	42%
CNN	Crossfire With Hosts (6:30 – 7)	298	1281	71%	29%
Fox News	Special Report w/Bret Baier	331	1056	64%	36%
HLN	Evening Express	0	3	67%	33%
MSNBC	PoliticsNation w/ Al Sharpton	443	1906	57%	43%

Ratings for Weekdays 7pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	Out Front w/Erin Burnett	286	474	70%	30%
E	E! News	337	2969	26%	74%
Fox News	On The Record w/Greta Van Susteren	413	1334	58%	42%
HLN	Jane Velez-Mitchell	73	193	38%	62%
MSNBC	Hardball w/ Chris Matthews	479	955	62%	38%

Ratings for Weekdays 8pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	Anderson Cooper 360	1834	8144	46%	54%
Fox News	The O’Reilly Factor	461	1089	54%	46%
HLN	Nancy Grace	296	485	28%	72%
MSNBC	All In w/ Chris Hayes	1721	4355	61%	39%

Ratings for Weekdays 9pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	Piers Morgan Live	832	12475	70%	30%
Fox News	The Kelly File	2109	3997	53%	47%
HLN	Dr Drew On Call	150	351	29%	71%
MSNBC	The Rachel Maddow Show	1670	2995	48%	52%

Ratings for Weekdays 10pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	AC360 Later	1026	8144	46%	54%
HLN	HLN After Dark	60	102	30%	70%
MSNBC	The Last Word w/Lawrence O’Donnell	858	1809	43%	57%

Ratings for Weekdays 11pm

Network	Show	Tweets Hour	Tweets Day	Male	Female
CNN	Outfront w/Burnett (11-11:30pm)	35	474	70%	30%
CNN	Crossfire (11:30p – 12a)	0	0	0%	0%
CNN	Crossfire With Hosts (11:30p – 12a)	52	1281	71%	29%
Comedy Central	The Daily Show (11-11:30)	256	1466	61%	39%
Comedy Central	The Colbert Report (11:30-12am)	482	2287	60%	40%
Fox News	The O’Reilly Factor	161	1089	54%	46%
HLN	ShowBiz Tonight	3	92	55%	45%
MSNBC	All In w/Chris Hayes	882	4355	61%	39%

Definition of terms used in this report:

Network: For the purposes of total network mentions, the count is the total unique tweets that mention any of the shows tracked on the network or the network’s general Twitter account (e.g., @CNN).
Mentions During Hour or Tweets Hour: The number of tweets that mention the show during the hour specified. For shows that are repeat later in the day, the first (and often live) showing usually garners the most mentions by a significant margin.
Mentions During day or Tweets Day: The total number of mentions a show received from midnight to midnight, eastern time.
Tweet Count: The number of tweets (including retweets) that mention a show.
Unique Tweeters: The number of Twitter users who have sent one or more tweets mentioning a show. If a user sends more than one tweet, they still only count once.
Reach: A measure of the number of impressions a collection of tweets will make. For each tweet that is sent, it adds up how many people follow the person tweeting it — how many timelines that tweet will show up in. Thus, if network A has 10,000 mentions from people with an average of 10 followers, the reach will be 100,000. On the other hand, if network B has 10,000 mentions from people with an average of 100 followers, the reach will be 1,000,000. So network B has much greater reach: tweets mentioning network B will potentially be seen 10 times as often as tweets about network A.
Male / Female: An estimate of the demographics of a show’s audience. Note that this number is an imprecise estimate.

Cable News Twitter Ratings are still experimental. If you have any suggestions, find any errors, or have any questions, please feel free to contact me at admin@socialseer.com

For further discussion of how these stats are calculated, please see this blog post. Especially the part about how I determine the gender of Twitter users.

The Social Seer

News, Information, Insight, and Opinion about Social Media

Category Archives: Cable Channels

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Cable News Twitter Ratings for Monday, November 18, 2013 — Kelly File Wins

Cable News Ratings for 2013-11-18

Top Shows for the day:

Overall ratings by network

Most popular hastags

Ratings for individual time slots