George Burns/Harpo Productions via AP
Ever since Oprah's endorsement of Barack Obama, the media has tried to spin stories that Oprah's ratings decreases for her daytime talk show are tied to that endorsement. Even though there is not any evidence that clearly supports such a view, the stories persist.
For a while, we were getting multiple requests a week to look at that data, and whenever we looked at it, we couldn't come up with anything to actually support the case. At least unless we could somehow attribute decreases with Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune to Oprah's endorsement of Obama too.
Over the weekend, the AP did another story on Winfrey's ratings and based on that, The New York Times' David Carr penned a post for Media Decoder titled "Oprah's Politics May Have Viewers Voting With Their Feet".
Even though the article starts out by pointing out some truths, that ratings are down pretty much for everyone, and that despite Oprah being down 7% last year versus the prior year, shows like Jerry Springer's and Martha Stewart's were down double digit percentages. But, it then abandons rational analysis of the numbers and jumps into the speculative fray about the role Oprah's politics play.
How is this story still even worth printing? (By other media outlets, not by you.) Hasn’t everyone gotten bored of it yet? Or is there just nothing else in the news this week?
I think the decrease in ratings has something to do with her increase in weight….
Oh my I’m going to get scorned for that one.
Anyone who didn’t figure out long ago that Oprah was a liberal, or at the very least a new ager, hasn’t been watching her show for the last two decades. This AP article is grasping for a story where there isn’t one — not an unutual thing for the AP. Let’s say people were shocked she endorsed Obama. The question is “Why?” President Obama is an African American man from Chicago, Illinois. What did people expect, she would endorse the Old Man and the Moron? Come on!
Actually, jocor, it would be really interesting to do an analysis of her ratings through the years in relationship to her weight. Her weight loss battle has been such a huge part of the show for so long that I wonder if ratings go up or down when the weight comes back on. Of course, it would be difficult to really assess considering the erosion in viewership that can be attributed to time.
Jimmy, I think the original controversy was that she endorsed Obama over Clinton. I guess the theory is that lost her a lot of her female audience?
I watch Oprah’s show occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. I’ve never cared for her show. To me the show tries too hard to be “good for you,” and she has an unrealistic viewpoint of what the real world is like. $80 bras, who can afford them, not even if they are the most comfortable in the world. Her food advice? Right, I can afford a trainer and a personal chef to make yummy low cal dinners. And then she can’t even stay on diet. It’s not political. Maybe it is just that her audience has to spend more time at work to pay for food and bills.
Julia, I’m not sure it was the Clinton vs. Obama, more that it was such an overtly political move.
Jimmy, no one would expect her to have endorsed McCain, but instead to have endorsed no one.
Still, it is a theory which, as we have pointed out many times, has absolutely no data presented to back it up. None.
Oprah’s still the chat show queen! Fat or phat!
Oprahs ratings are down because her ego is bigger than she is and shes borrrring.
People in media should never endorse candidates unless they have nothing to lose. Oprah has nothing, and I repeat, nothing to lose. She’s loaded and can do whatever she wants. She could endorse the Green Party and it wouldn’t hurt her income and level of power in the broadcasting industry a bit. Her syndicators have everything to lose. If they are afraid of her endorsement of Obama, then they will suffer in the dollars and cents race. But should an advertiser drop out of her show, there are many more to replace them. All they have look back to is the way Oprah moves product and those advertisers will be on board. And BTW it’s not about the ratings, it’s the fact that she moves product. Her viewers are more apt to buy from her endorsement of a product then a commercial on CSI, ya think? With 2, 3 4 times the audience? You’re on Oprah because it’s Oprah. It’s not about ratings and never will be with her. In fact if an advertiser is smart they will look at her show, forgive the endorsement if they supported the other team, and shut up, then continue to spend as much money in and around her as they possibly can. It’s all about ROI these days and an investment in her is profitable despite the drop in ratings.
I wouldn’t doubt it… no matter what stance you take, if you throw it in people’s face somebody isn’t going to like it.
And Jimmy don’t be such a fool. Even though you obviously are a crass jerk, you also expose your stupidity with your comment. If (and I stress if) her ratings are down over the endorsement it would most likely be among women who supported Hillary or at least thought Hillary was getting unfairly treated during the primaries… NOT Republicans or Conservatives.
Her ratings are down since the husbands of the wives who watched her are home now since they recession and refuse to watch her..
josh, that’s just as plausible as the Obama endorsement theory, and much more amusing!
I always knew Oprah was a liberal, and I suspected all these years that she was a Democrat, but I was OK with that because she never shoved it in my face; until she jumped into the political arena with her endorsement. I am not interested in who she thinks I should vote for. She’s a billionaire talk show host who does indeed recommend $80 bras. She is now so far out of touch with her viewers that I was rarely watching her. But now I not only don’t watch, I refuse to watch. She used her tremendous influence to help elect an inexperienced, untested man and I suspect it was not only because he came from Chicago and was an intelligent and well-spoken liberal, but because he was African American. What a disservice to our country. And that’s my 2 cents.
However I think josh has the real reason for Oprah’s declining popularity.
She should consider adding a couple of vampires to her show.
Let’s put it this way: her endorsement didn’t help. Have you looked market by market at some of the ratings drops? I suspect you’ll find that the viewer erosion is worse in areas where there are more conservative voters.
randy, the fact that we don’t see market by market ratings is besides the fact that there is no trend in Oprah’s ratings that suggests that her endorsement of Obama had any effect whatsoever! We looked at it as closely as we could, and I guarantee more closely than all these chuckleheads writing about it in the last year or so.
You might as well claim another show’s ratings went down because they *didn’t* endorse Obama. There’s just as much evidence of that!
Common sense dictates that it’s true. Not everyone is honest in polls, you know.
Maybe people are realizing that shes satan and quit watching.
Marilynn, there are no polls asking people why they are or are not watching Oprah. Common sense dictates that since her numbers are down less than every other major syndicated show, the drop has nothing to do with Obama.