Piers Morgan ratings watch: night four

Joe Pompeo
·Media Reporter

CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" got off to a roaring start -- 2.1 million total viewers -- with its Monday premiere featuring Oprah Winfrey. The audience slipped to 1.27 million total viewers on Tuesday, though it still helped CNN eke out a rare 9 p.m. win against Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity among 25- to 54-year-olds , probably thanks to that night's guest, Howard Stern. The ratings slipped a bit further on night three, when Morgan interviewed Condoleezza Rice, to 1.028 million total viewers.

Which brings us to Thursday. The guest was comedian Ricky Gervais, whose controversial Golden Globes monologue went viral earlier in the week. Nevertheless, it was Morgan's lowest-rated night so far, though he still beat MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. The Nielsen numbers are below:

• Fox News Channel/Hannity: 2,079,000 total viewers
• CNN/Morgan: 1,025,000 total viewers
• MSNBC/Maddow: 976,000 total viewers