By MICHAEL STARR

October 2, 2002 -- Fox News Channel continues to dominate the cable news arena, increasing its lead over rivals CNN and MSNBC by leaps and bounds in the latest ratings.

In the third quarter of 2002, FNC averaged 1.1 million viewers in prime time - a 17 percent increase over the same period in 2001 - and won all major demographic groups, according to Nielsen data released yesterday.

FNC, in fact, was the only news network with a jump over the third-quarter 2001 numbers.

Second-place CNN averaged 879,000 prime-time viewers (a 30 percent dropoff), while MSNBC finished a distant third with a paltry 249,000 prime-time viewers.

FNC also had four of the top five rated cable news shows, led by "The O'Reilly Factor," which averaged 1.9 million viewers.

CNN's "Larry King Live" finished second in prime time with 1.4 million viewers, a dropoff of 19 percent from last season - and has FNC's "Hannity & Colmes" (1.2 million viewers) nipping at its heels.

"The Fox Report with Shepard Smith" was fourth with 1.1 million viewers, followed by FNC's "Special Report with Brit Hume" (937,000 viewers).

There was some good news for CNN. "Connie Chung Tonight" got hammered by Bill O'Reilly at 9 p.m., but smothered MSNBC's Phil Donahue's teetering talk show "Donahue" by 82 percent.

CNN was also up 3 percent in total viewers for total-day programming.

Fox News Channel is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2002