Cable news ended the week on a high note during the Friday evening conclusion of the manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The 7 p.m. hour when the news broke saw 5.75 million viewers flock to Fox News Channel, giving it a win for the hour over CNN's 5.19 million and MSNBC's 1.43 million. CNN managed to pull off an atypical victory in the key demographic of adults 25-54 -- and by a healthy margin. The network averaged 2.36 million adults 25-54 in the hour, topping FNC's 1.57 million and MSNBC's 459,000.
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Viewers kept flocking to the three networks as more developments came in. Between 8 and 11 p.m., Fox topped the primetime block with an average 5.97 million viewers. CNN had 5.37 million, with MSNBC pulling in 1.72 million. CNN saw another win in the key demographic with 2.47 million adults, topping FNC's 1.93 million and MSNBC's 618,000.
Both FNC and CNN saw their broadcasts peak in viewers during the 8 p.m. hour, with FNC topping out at 7.65 million and CNN hitting 6.78 million. MSNBC hit its peak at 9 p.m. with 2.06 million viewers.
Wall-to-wall coverage on the broadcast networks, which will report final returns later on Monday, saw the peak 8 p.m. hour dominated by NBC News. The network averaged 10.7 million, besting ABC's 7.79 million and CBS' 6.89 million.
