Live coverage of the Chilean Miners' rescue dominated the cable news networks Tuesday night. Fox News' broadcast of the mine rescue was the ratings champ, but CNN scored a surprising second place.
Fox averaged 3.231 million total viewers from 8-11 p.m. compared to CNN's 1.951 million average for primetime. MSNBC came in third with a primetime average of 1.018 million total viewers.
The numbers were surprising since CNN is generally the number three cable network. Since the arrival of "Parker Spitzer" Oct. 4, they have been finishing fourth behind Fox News, MSNBC and Headline News.
CNN has struggled to find a way to compete with the more partisan approach of its competitors. The network is currently undergoing a reinvention that seems geared toward incorporating more opinionated content and celebrity news. Tuesday night's ratings for the mine rescue indicate that, perhaps, a focus on hard news might be CNN's ticket to better ratings.
The 33 men at the San Jose mine in Chile were trapped over 2,000 feet below the ground after the mine caved in on Aug. 5. A rescue effort spearheaded by the Chilean government reached the miners Oct. 12 and they began bringing the men up from the mine one by one. As of this writing, there are still three men trapped in the mine.
The rescue of the miners transfixed audiences around the globe. Along with the wall-to-wall TV coverage, the rescue generated record web traffic.
