After a day of figuring out who's trying to end the feud between Keith
Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly and continuing with a look at Olbermann's
reach at MSNBC (and then putting the whole thing to a poll), how about
looking at two recent ratings notes concerning the major players?

• With Rachel Maddow filling in on Countdown and E.D. Hill filling in
on The O'Reilly Factor, MSNBC enjoyed a big A25-54 demo win on Friday
night (416,000-309,000 viewers). MSNBC also finished first in the demo
at 7 and 9pmET, with CNN placing second in both those hours. FNC won
in total viewers.

• Thanks to the interview with Sen. Hillary Clinton, The O'Reilly
Factor on FNC placed sixth and seventh in the top time-shifted
programs for the week beginning April 28. Time-shifted ratings are
based on the percentage of increase between live data and live+seven
day data. "Increases like that from DVR viewing of 7%%+ are very rare
for any news program," writes Bill Gorman.

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For the first time in a long time, "The O'Reilly Factor" is trending
down and Froth is on the upswing. Since
"MakingSureNeophyteBarack(is)Chosen" (the cable "news" channel) is
definitely "in the tank" for Obama... and with younger Americans
overwhelmingly supporting Obama, "MakingSureNeophyteBarack(is)Chosen"
should be able to continue to post very good numbers.

Looks like, not too long from now, FOXNews will be the #3 cable news
channel.

Oh well... it was good while it lasted.

-C-