The Nation: Are Fox Ratings Fading with Tea Party Fails?

[marmar]

Are Fox Ratings Fading with Tea Party Fails?

Leslie Savan
June 5, 2010


Could it be that the nation’s infatuation with Fox News is slowly, slowly coming to an end? Looking at long-term cable ratings, you might surmise that on its way to the Tea Party, Fox has indeed jumped a shark or two.

Nothing is simple when it comes to stats or cable news, but consider: Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteren have each hit their lowest point in a year or more with the key 25- to 54-year-old demo, according to the latest Nielsens. This 12- to 16-month measurement is more detailed than a “year to year” comparison, which can make a show look strong or weak depending on what particular month you start from. But as a CNN press release happily notes: “May represents The O’Reilly Factor’s worst performance since January 2009, Hannity’s lowest delivery to date since taking over the time period in January 2009, and (Van Susteren’s) On the Record’s lowest since May 2009. Fox Report with Shep Smith had its lowest demo delivery since December 2008.”

O’Reilly, for instance, had some 625,000 viewers in the 25-54 age range in January 2009, built to a peak of one million by November, and dropped, to 693,000, by May 2010. Hannity and Van Susteren had similar rises and falls. Glenn Beck did not hit a 12-month-or-more low point. But as Eric Boehlert of Media Matters points out, Beck’s numbers have fallen since his high in January, and “after twelve months of hype, Beck has not significantly grown his TV audience.”

And, by any measure, if you look at total viewership for all of Fox News, some audience-shedding is also evident. “In total day total viewers, FNC was down 6% year-to-year (while MSNBC was up 3% and CNN was down 16%),” writes Mediaite.

It’s true that Fox dwarfs MSNBC and CNN in raw audience numbers and that it’s still the number-one cable news channel, with the top 11 shows in both total viewers and the 25-54 group; O’Reilly, Beck, and Hannity still lead the pack, in that order. (Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, the nearest non-Fox hosts, are number 12 and 14 respectively.)

But comparing Fox ratings to themselves over a long period does show a trend that calls into question the Fox News Free-Market Theory of Journalistic Evidence: We must be right, and our version of reality must be the truest, because we have the most people watching—in other words, the market is the ultimate Decider. But that audience is currently decreasing—ergo, the market has also decided that Fox is less right and its version of reality less true than it was in the past. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/are-fox-ratings-fading-tea-party-fails

[political_Dem]

1. Please let it be so.

For two decades FOX has had a reign of terror over this country.

I hope the racist and unruly behavior of the Teabaggers continue to put this news network and the GOP further in quicksand.

[a kennedy]

2. So where does this guy fit in......Neil Cavuto Hits 100 Months At #1

:mad: :puke: :grr:

Neil Cavuto hit a ratings milestone last month: he marked his 100th consecutive month at #1 in the 4PM cable news time slot.

"Your World with Neil Cavuto" finished May with an average of 1.302 million total viewers. It has been #1 in the time slot since February 2002.

CNN averaged 543,000 total viewers during the time period, while MSNBC averaged 333,000 total viewers.

Cavuto also hosts a show on Fox Business Network.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/04/neil-cavuto-hits-100-mont_n_601070.html

[madokie]

3. I'm so far out of the loop that I had to look up this turds bio

cause I don't remember seeing him before. I guess that's what I get for not watching fox noise :-)

[peace frog]

4. ..and no doubt you're a happier person for it.

:)

[KharmaTrain]

5. Outrage Fatigue...

Faux and hate radio remind me of the age of the "shock jocks" of the 80s and early 90s. The Howard Sterns and Bubba the Love Sponges and Mancows and Opie and Anthonies all had to keep up the "shtick"...push the envelope; shock a little further. The problem of pushing the envelope is that one day you run out of edge. What outrages is no longer outrageous and the need to find further outrage isn't easy to come by.

It's been quite a roller coaster ride for the wingnuts over the past couple years. From the moment it became possible that President Obama was going to win, the volume was raised, the outrages flowed and the tea began to get bagged. All sorts of worst case scenarios were sure to happen...the "socialists" were sure to destroy GM and Chrysler (which hasn't happened) and taxes were going to be raised (they went down) and all sorts of other gloom and doom haven't happened. While there are those who still crave the outrage of the day, many others are getting tired of the "calling wolf" and the stridency and silliness that is coming out of the teevee and radio.

Call them a victim of their own "success"...the right wing spin machine has so mesmorized the corporate media and the two play footsie with each other, but the rest of the country is losing interest as they're realizing we're paying for the "less government" of the past 30 years.