As was the case mere months ago, a Malaysia Airlines plane tragedy is providing big ratings boosts to the cable news channels.
CNN saw the largest increases across all metrics, though came in second place to Fox News in each category. MSNBC was third throughout the main measurements. The numbers below are compared with the past four Thursdays.
Across total day, Fox News was first with 1.5 million total viewers, up 37 percent. CNN jumped 96 percent to 699,000 total viewers, MSNBC followed with 378,000 viewers.
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In the key 25-54 cable news demographic, Fox saw a 51 percent boost to 313,000 demo viewers across total day. CNN leapt 133 percent to 247,000 viewers. MSNBC had a more modest 24 percent increase to 83,000 viewers.
In primetime, FNC rose 52 percent to 3.08 million total viewers; CNN flew 86 percent to 1.22 million total viewers; and MSNBC had a 40 percent bump to 825,000 total viewers.
Primetime in the key news demo saw the biggest growth of any day part: CNN skyrocketed 176 percent to 488,000 viewers, Fox took off 71 percent to 570,000 viewers and MSNBC lifted 62 percent to 183,000 viewers.
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On Thursday, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur dropped off the radar near the Russian border in Eastern Ukraine. The plane crashed, killing 295 people on board. While the details are still being sorted out, it is believed that the commercial plane was shot down.
This is the second Malaysia Airlines disaster this year. On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, never to be found.
Flight 370 likely flew into the southern Indian Ocean, Australian authorities determined in June. That flight had 239 people on board.