TV Ratings: Boston Coverage Drives Fox News to Top All Cable for First Time Since Katrina

10:06 AM PDT 4/23/2013 by Michael O'Connell

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Interest in wall-to-wall reporting on the marathon bombing and ensuing manhunt drives the network to highs not reached since 2005.

Boston Bombing Shep Smith Fox News - H 2013

Fox News' Shepard Smith

With Nielsen now reporting the entire week's worth of coverage from the Boston Marathon bombing, Fox News Channel notched a notable victory among cable networks by topping all non-broadcast nets for the entire week.

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TV Ratings: Viewership Surges During Cable News Coverage of Boston Marathon Bombing

Holding the title in both total day and primetime between April 15 and April 21, no cable news network has approached the top ranking since FNC last held it during similarly wall-to-wall coverage that took place in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

All told, FNC's 2.874 million viewers average in primetime topped perennial cable victor USA (2.621 million) by more than 200,000. CNN also surged, though its 1.985 million had it in a more distant third place. MSNBC ranked 19th with 923,000 viewers.

FNC also topped in total day with 1.772 million viewers. That put it ahead of Nickelodeon (1.644 million) by more than 100,000 viewers and third-place CNN (1.329 million) by 400,000. MSNBC came in at number 16 in daily viewership with 578,000.