March 2nd, 2015

CNN’S TWO NEW ORIGINAL SERIES DEBUT AS #1 IN CABLE NEWS LAST NIGHT

Finding Jesus:  Faith, Fact, Forgery and The Wonder List with Bill Weir Both Rank #1 in Total Viewers and the Demo

CNN Outperforms the Combined Delivery of Fox News and MSNBC

According to Nielsen Fast National Data, CNN’s two new Original Series Finding Jesus:  Faith, Fact, Forgery and The Wonder List with Bill Weir both debuted as No. 1 in cable news in their respective time period in both total viewers and the demo 25-54 last night (Sunday, March 1).

At 9pm, Finding Jesus (Shroud of Turin) was top-rated, averaging 1.139 million total viewers, +80% more than Fox News’ 634k and a +314% advantage over MSNBC’s 275k.  In the key demo 25-54 Finding Jesus posted 371k, while Fox News and MSNBC both trailed with 111k.  Finding Jesus outperformed the combined delivery of Fox News and MSNBC in both demos.  Finding Jesus is the second highest rated CNN Original Series premiere ever in total viewers (behind The Sixties/1.390m) and the second highest rated in the demo 25-54 (behind Mike Rowe’s SGDI/537k).

At 10pm, The Wonder List with Bill Weir (Vanuatu: Landlords of Paradise) was also #1 in total viewers last night with 706k; Fox News trailed with 603k and MSNBC had 312k.  Among adults 25-54 the Weir-led program also ranked first with 294k, +99% more than Fox News’ 148k and a +133% advantage over MSNBC’s 126k.  It outperformed the combined delivery of Fox News and MSNBC in the key demo.  The Wonder List also saw the most growth among cable news in the time period vs. prior four Sundays, increasing +122% in total viewers (706k vs. 318k) and +160% in adults 25-54 (294k vs. 113k).

Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery continues next Sunday with John the Baptist and The Wonder List with Bill Weir with Galapagos: A Fight for Survival.

Source: The Nielsen Company, Live+SD data, Fast National data is time period based, while historical data is program based.

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