Perhaps Fox News should have given 8 o’clock to Dana Perino.
Subbing for the fired Bill O’Reilly on the newly renamed (and temporary) “The Factor,” Perino pulled in 3.3 million total viewers, with 625,000 of them coming from the advertiser-sought 25-54 demographic. Both were good enough to make the “Factor” No. 1 across cable news on the same evening O’Reilly was shown the door.
Perino’s latest turn filling in on “The Factor” finished up 18 percent in total viewers versus the same day last year. The hour grew an even-more impressive 47 percent in the demo.
Last night’s “Factor” ranked third across all of cable, behind only the NBA Playoffs on TNT. Nine o’clock Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” finished fourth, and the net’s “The Five” rounded out the Top 5.
Fox News Channel swept primetime in both main Nielsen metrics on Wednesday.
Over on CNN, “Anderson Cooper 360” at 8 p.m. ET averaged 1.3 million total viewers, with 432,000 in the main demo. MSNBC’s “All in With Chris Hayes” brought in 1.6 million viewers during the same hour — 404,000 of those were 25-54.