Shepard Smith Debut Saw Viewership Boost For CNBC In Time Period, Network Says

UPDATED, with additional numbers: The debut of The News with Shepard Smith on Wednesday drew 373,000 viewers, which is well behind major cable news networks but a boost for CNBC for the time period.

A network spokesperson said that the premiere viewership was 2.6 times higher than the September time period average. It also drew 3.6 times as many viewers as The Kudlow Report, which was the last news program in the 7 PM ET, during the first quarter of 2014. The host of The Kudlow Report was Larry Kudlow, who is now top economic adviser to President Donald Trump.

“News viewers are creatures of habit and it takes a long time to change those habits,” a CNBC spokesperson said. “But we will fight for every viewer every weeknight.”

In that same time period, a second airing of Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business drew 308,000 viewers. In the 25-54 demographic, The News with Shepard Smith drew 56,000 and Dobbs garnered 26,000.

Among the major cable news networks, The Story with Martha MacCallum drew 2.67 million (521,000 in 25-54), ReidOut drew 2.28 million (396,000) and Erin Burnett Outfront garnered 1.83 million (501,000).

In the third quarter, Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum drew an average of 2.38 million viewers in the 7 PM ET hour, followed by ReidOut on MSNBC with 1.96 million and Erin Burnett Outfront with 1.36 million. In the 25-54 demographic, The Story drew 420,000, followed by Outfront with 358,000 and ReidOut with 307,000.

On Fox Business in that time period, Lou Dobbs Tonight drew an average of 276,000 viewers in the third quarter, and 22,000 in the 25-54 demo. The figures were released by Fox News.

Smith joined CNBC in July after a long tenure at Fox News.

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