Cable news ratings, November 19, 2010:

•The usually underperforming Parker/Spitzer didn’t come anywhere near winning their 8 p.m. timeslot Friday, coming in fourth–but the show’s 140,000 viewers 25-54 was a bigger number than both Larry King Live, with 124,000 and Anderson Cooper 360 with 127,000.

Cable news ratings, November 18, 2010:

•Lawrence O’Donnell came very close to winning the 10 p.m. time period Thursday, with 311,000 viewers 25-54–just off the pace of usual time slot winner Great Van Susteren, who won with 324,000.

•On the ratings chart for Wednesday, CNN’s column may be stressful reading for execs at the Time Warner Center:  Wolf Blitzer, John King, and Parker Spitzer all got nowhere near breaking a threshold considered critical: at least 100,000 viewers 25-54.

Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia veered a bit off topic yesterday at a Senate hearing on television retransmission consent, slamming both Fox News and MSNBC for what they each do to “political discourse.”

But it went beyond that – he wouldn’t mind saying “goodbye” to both networks.

Was it the debate over “junk-touching?” Hard news guy Shepard Smith turned in big numbers Tuesday, even outperforming FNC’s biggie Glenn Beck among viewers 25-54.

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The top 40 shows on cable last week involved some new entries to the mix – Sarah Palin and Conan O’Brien – and some that are usually around – NFL and SpongeBob.

And while Bill O’Reilly regularly is the top cable news show, his Fox News program showed up on the top cable shows list as well. Here are the details:

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Cable news ratings, November 15, 2010:
•Lawrence O’Donnell’s special on immigration put MSNBC into fourth place at 10 p.m. among viewers 25-54, a significant drop from O’Donnell’s usually strong ratings in the 10 o’clock hour. It dropped even more dramatically at 11 p.m., when MSNBC usually airs a re-broadcast of Countdown.

Fox News announced Tuesday that FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace has signed a new multi-year contract that will keep him in his Washington chair on Sunday mornings. “Chris is a consummate journalist who is renowned in the industry for his hard-hitting interviews. We’re proud he is continuing that work at Fox News,” said Michael Clemente, Fox News senior vice president of news.

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Fox News’ top talker Bill O’Reilly won’t soon be confused for a Chardonnay-sipping subscriber of The New York Times, and he took time out in a “Factor Followup” segment Monday night to dissect the “decline and fall” of the Gray Lady–the subject of a new book by Times watcher William McGowan.

McGowan says the Times has lost its way by printing opinion instead of objective, shoe leather reporting:

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President George W. Bush continues his lengthy publicity tour for his tell-some book Decision Points with a week of appearances on Fox & Friends. And although he’s done interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Matt Lauer, Bill O’Reilly and more, there are still some topics yet to be discussed.

Like whether his father’s testicles are black.

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• Rachel Maddow’s interview with Jon Stewart got big ratings for the MSNBC host, who has had the top show on the network all week. The 9pmET program had 433,000 viewers in the A25-54 demographic (more than Greta Van Susteren the next hour on Fox News).

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Bill O’Reilly’s lengthy interview with Pres. George W. Bush amounted to likely the most contentious of all his entire recent media tour, which is interesting on many levels.

O’Reilly, frustrated with Pres. Bush refusing to answer current events questions, countered with a solid argument why his claims of not wanting to undermine Pres. Barack Obama don’t really hold up.

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• Bill O’Reilly had another huge night Wednesday: 942,000 in the A25-54 demographic and 3,751,000 total viewers. How huge? It was more total viewers than all MSNBC prime time shows combined. Also, it was more total viewers than CNN shows from 6pm-11pmET.

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Five “programs” (four hours and one partial hour) were in the top 10 programs on all of cable last week for Fox News, from 7:50pmET-MidnightET.

The network also finished #2 overall in prime time on cable for the week – the first time in 2nd place since the May 31 week of the BP oil spill. More details:

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• Rachel Maddow had the most viewers on MSNBC Friday – the day Keith Olbermann was suspended by the network. Olbermann’s replacement, Thomas Roberts, performed better than average for a Friday.

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For hardcore Wheelers, the one-letter solution Friday night was one of the most epic Wheelings of all time.

But how did she do it? Caitlin Burke explained her Wheel of Fortune strategy to Shepard Smith today.

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• Fox News was the top cable network during prime time on Wednesday night, the day after the midterm election, ahead of USA Network’s highly-rated NCIS re-runs. Bill O’Reilly had the most-watched show on all of cable, while Sean Hannity was #2. Overall, Fox News had five of the top 10 programs on cable Wednesday.

With the 2010 midterm election basically done, it’s time to look to 2012!

Tonight, Fox News’ Bret Baier begins reporting on a series called “12 in ‘12″ that profiles a dozen potential 2012 GOP candidates. Only one of the 12 refused to be interviewed – Mitt Romney.

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• Fox News beat CNN and MSNBC combined during prime time for Election Night coverage, in total viewers and the A25-54 demographic. It was the network’s best prime time ratings since the Presidential Election two years ago. CNN finished a clear #2, while MSNBC was #3. Mediaite obtained an internal memo sent from Roger Ailes congratulating FNC and the rest of the Fox team.

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Rep. Alan Grayson, who had arguably one of the most offensive campaign ads this season “Taliban Dan”, has lost his re-election bid to Republican Daniel Webster, according to several outlets.

Bill O’Reilly confidently said Grayson would lose long before it was called – and predicted his next place of employment.