Fox News gains, other news networks fall

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http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=200309040244000204239&dt=20030904024400&w=RTR&coview=

Fox News Channel was the only cable news service in August to grow in viewership from a year ago, gaining 20% in primetime and 29% across the entire day, according to Nielsen Media Research.

By comparison, CNN fell by 9% in primetime and total day, while MSNBC lost 21% in primetime and 11% for the day. Headline News and CNBC also suffered losses greater than 20% compared with August 2002. It marked the 28th consecutive month that Fox led the news channel pack.

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Otherwise on Fox, "Hannity & Colmes" rose by 26% to average 1.4 million viewers, while 9 p.m. rival "Larry King Live" fell by 12% to 1.12 million. At 8 p.m., "The O'Reilly Factor" edged up 9% to 1.94 million as CNN's Paula Zahn show "Live From the Headlines" -- still under her old format -- dropped by 18% to 593,000. CNN hopes to improve its 7-11 p.m. performance when Zahn and Anderson Cooper, who anchors the 7 p.m. hour, debut their new formats this month.

On MSNBC, "Scarborough Country" was flat at 10 p.m. with 254,000 viewers as it benefited from generous comparisons with the low-rated "Ashleigh Banfield" a year ago. At 7 p.m., "Hardball" inched up 2% as the Chris Matthews-hosted show drew 276,000 viewers. Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" show averaged 230,000 viewers, 39% fewer than "Donahue," and "The Abrams Report" at 9 p.m. had 41% fewer viewers than "Hardball" had in the time slot. But MSNBC had heavily promoted its primetime lineup a year ago and did little or no marketing this summer.