The Weather Channel bested the big three cable networks with respect to the coveted 25-54 age demographic Friday and Saturday as stations across the spectrum covered the landfall and aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
About 404,000 viewers within the 24-54 age range tuned into The Weather Channel on Friday, while the day’s second-best network, Fox News, attracted an audience of only 310,000, AdWeek first reported.
The Weather Channel reigned supreme Saturday as well, pulling in about 367,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, the report said. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, each failed to crack the 300,000-viewer threshold with respect to the same demographic Saturday, according to AdWeek’s figures.
Fox News beat out its cable news competitors as well as The Weather Channel with regards to total weekend viewers, the report said.
As the tropical storm formerly known as Hurricane Harvey continues to complicate matters for millions of Texans, however, The Weather Channel isn’t curbing its storm coverage just yet. The Weather Channel began its Hurricane Harvey coverage at 5 a.m. last Friday morning and intends on following it around the clock until 1 a.m. Saturday, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
“What I’ve tried to do is not cede the story to anyone else once the forecasting has been done,” Nora Zimmett, The Weather Channel’s senior vice president of programming, told the AP.
The Weather Channel will have broadcast “at least 188 consecutive live hours” of storm coverage if the station continues through the weekend as planned, the AP reported.
About 37 million viewers in all watched The Weather Channel between Friday and Sunday, the AdWeek report said.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Corpus Christi late Friday evening and subsequently dumped several feet of rain across southern Texas. It was downgraded Saturday from a category four hurricane to a tropical storm, but related flooding has continued to ravage the greater Houston region ever since.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.