Primaries Pump News Networks

The results of Tuesday’s primary battles may be causing angst among some Democrats, but the resurgence of Sen. Hillary Clinton in Ohio and Texas came as welcome news to the cable news outlets.

Clinton’s wins in key states ensures that the ratings-grabbing spectacle of the fierce competish between her and Sen. Barack Obama to win their party’s nomination will run high for at least another few months or so leading into the Democratic convention in August.

The Clinton-vs.-Obama express has definitely been good for business at CNN and MSNBC. Those two nets came in Nos. 1 and 2 in the key adults 25-54 news demographic in primetime on Tuesday night, with CNN averaging 1.6 million viewers in that age group to MSNBC’s 876,000 and Fox News’ 830,000.

CNN led in total viewers in primetime with an average of 3.7 million viewers, followed by Fox News (3 million) and MSNBC (2 million).

CNN’s D.C. bureau chief David Bohrman found himself stunned, and of course pleased, by the strong viewer turnout for Tuesday’s primaries, which were anything but decided even hours after the polls closed.

“For the last couple of months, I’ve been convinced that the huge spike in viewership was people who were trying to make up their minds and vote,” said Bohrman. “The thing is, most people have voted, and they’re still here. Now it’s translated into this must-watch event.”

So are the nets planning more ratings-fueling debates? In the words of MSNBC principal Phil Griffin, “Yes, yes, and yes.” Griffin and his opposite numbers at CNN are hoping that renewed uncertainty will result in candidates mixing it up for the cameras, and both nets are planning to expand coverage over the next few months, though they admit to being stretched a little thin.

“You plan as best you can the year before,” said Bohrman, “but I don’t think we really expected it would keep going like this. People have been working 100%, and they’re going to keep working 100%. There are not a lot of vacations being taken right now.”

Every working stiff in TV news knows the timetable by heart: Mississippi is next week, then there’s a brief lull before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, then a primary every week in May, followed by a campaigning free-for-all until the August convention.

Griffin is hoping MSNBC can use the period of increased interest to seize the moment and build its own viewership. “CNN’s been around for a while,” he observed. “They’ve got people who have grown up with CNN, and it’s going to be tough to pry those people away, so we need to pull in the younger viewers.”

Fox execs were unavailable for comment, but the company has said repeatedly in the past that spikes for the competition generated by debates and primaries can last only so long. In weeks without big election news, such as last week, Fox News continues to maintain its edge over the competish.

— By Sam Thielman

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