Figures out from Nielsen Media Research show CNN beating arch-rival Fox News Channel in the ratings for Saturday, the day upon which news broke about the space shuttle disintegrating in the skies above the central-southern United States.

Nielsen ratings, the AP reports, show CNN winning the 09:15-12noon time period by 1.1m viewers over Fox. The channel also won the day as a whole, averaging 0.1m more viewers.

This isn't the first time CNN has challenged Fox's dominance in the ratings in recent months; during the Washington sniper saga, the channel pulled ahead of the current number-one cable news outlet for one day. Fox does however in the main continue to wipe the floor with CNN in primetime and indeed the whole day.

These figures do however suggest CNN retains its position as the network most viewers turn to in the event of major breaking news; and the channel's coverage on Saturday was reminiscent of Ted Turner's original aims for the network, with the news being the star as opposed to "personality"-led reporting. Ratings for Sunday, Monday and onwards should be interesting, demonstrating whether viewers continued to watch CNN or went back to the number one news channel, Fox, once the breaking news event was over.