CNN’s ratings took another hit on Election Night 2009, once again finishing dead last among cable news networks. Fox News topped the ratings list for the night, finishing with a prime time audience five times higher than the original cables new channel. Fox was the only channel to demonstrate a ratings boost, nearly doubling its viewership during an election which saw Republicans win gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

The 2009 elections represented a reversal from the most recent midterm election both politically and especially in terms of broadcast audience:

Americans chose ABC and CNN to watch election night coverage on Tuesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research figures…CNN, which turned its New York broadcast centre into a huge videowall-dominated election headquarters, averaged 3m viewers but soundly beat Fox in the adults 25-54 demographic – while CNN had 1.33m viewers in the demo, Fox was second with 1.25m.

It is worth noting that CNN beat MSNBC by more than 1 million viewers on election night 2006. The network trailed its liberal competitor by 150,000 viewers during this year’s election coverage. In fact, until March of this year MSNBC had never bested CNN’s prime time ratings numbers.

CNN‘s ratings woes may be more dire than originally thought. The network, which finished dead last among cable news outlets in prime time, has fallen from the cable’s top 30 channels:

For the first time in more than two years, CNN fell out of the top 30 cable channels last week in prime time (total viewers). Fox News ranked 3rd, behind USA and ESPN, while MSNBC was 26th. It was the 43rd consecutive week Fox News finished in the top 5 cable channels in prime time.