CNN tops cable ratings as first miner emerges

CNN hasn't had a lot of good news lately. Television critics panned last week's premiere of "Parker Spitzer," and the public hasn't embraced the show, either. And the network's prime-time ratings hit a 10-year low Monday night.

But Tuesday proved once again that viewers still turn to CNN when there's major breaking news in the world — whether it's an earthquake, a flood or, in this case, a dramatic mine rescue in Chile.

CNN attracted 3.998 million total viewers and 1.422 million in the key 25-to-54 age demographic during the 11 p.m hour, as the first miner emerged from beneath the earth's surface after 69 days.

That's a huge increase from Monday night's total during the same hour: 303,000.

It was a big night all around, with Fox News, MSNBC and CNN combining to bring in 8.5 million viewers at 11 p.m. By comparison, fewer than 2 million viewers tuned in to the three networks at the same time Monday.

Fox News, the long-running cable ratings leader, had 3.468 million viewers and 1.046 million in the demo at 11 p.m. Despite CNN's strong showing, Fox still came out on top during the prime-time hours of 8 to 11 p.m. However, CNN — which now typically ranks third or fourth most nights in prime time — beat out MSNBC.

CNN executives, confronted by ratings drops, have argued in recent years that the network avoids veering its prime-time programming to the political right (as Fox News does) or left (in the MSNBC model ). The strategy, as they see it, is to keep CNN a go-to destination for viewers seeking breaking news without any partisan slant. The problem for CNN is that viewers seem increasingly drawn to ideologically tinged news reports and opinion shows. And, of course, the network can't count on gripping mine rescues coming along every day.