The industriousness of reader MikeS has yet to reach its bounds. Courtesy of his work, we now have an adults 25-54 demo (which is the group targeted by cable news advertisers) long term chart as well as an average viewership chart.
Long Term Trend of O'Reilly vs. Olbermann vs. Campbell Brown TV Ratings:
The trend lines above are 30 day moving averages.
For complete information on all cable news ratings check our daily cable news ratings posts.
I stopped producing these charts in the spring of 2009 because of lack of interest (some on my part, some on the readers), but energetic reader MikeS wanted to produce them, and I think they look better than mine did! Anybody else wanting to produce trend charts of any of our other data, drop me an email.
Nielsen Cable Network Coverage Estimates (as of September, 2009)
CNN/HLN: 99.10 million HHs
CNBC: 96.78 million HHs
FNC: 96.26 million HHs
MSNBC: 92.64 million HHs
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Philosopher Jay– this is how data is put together to show trends. Please no more of your two point comparisons.
Great charts!!!
What I find interesting about these charts is how it shows a clear divide between obvious conservative viewers tuned into FOX and liberal viewers split between MSNBC and CNN. The consistently higher scoring of FOX News is no doubt solely attributable to it being the only real mouthpiece on TV for conservatives – would FOX have just as high ratings if it competed with two or three other high-profile conservative news networks? Still, it amuses me how with the MSNBC and CNN audiences, a spike in interest was reached during the last few months of the election until the inauguration of Obama, after which liberals just returned to sanity and more or less the same viewership levels as before that period, while conservatives still haven’t been able to come back down to Earth after the election/inauguration period, still being all riled up.
wy: i take a completely different interpretation and i think you might be discounting other nuances in these numbers. i think you’d be surprised how many independents and apolitical individuals are turning to fox news (that doesn’t mean they subscribe conservatism, it just means they prefer fnc to cnn and msnbc). and a good part of that could be due to government spending, the increase in the size of government, a renewed interest in small government, etc.
also, the pandering and overt partisanship of msnbc may have actually backfired on them.
i’d consider those factors.
only hannity from 6pm on is a true republican by his show…(beck at 5pm…not really sure what he is can’t tell…little crazy more then republican)
the rest do their job
6pm baier
7pm smith
8pm o’reilly
10pm greta
msnbc: that is 3 hard core liberals…that is the difference
maddows
matthews
olbermann
simple compare and contrast…
Great chart, great effort!
To MikeS who made these, what I would like to see is something on the annual data spread out over say last 3 years. NOT on a daily basis, you could take the daily overall’s (don’t care about the demo’s since a particular age range is counted twice), average it out for the entire month. And since there is a size limit above, maybe average it futher down to the quarter for simplicity, I dunno. But what I’m getting at is possibly a wider viewpoint.
I’m interested in seeing where things were well before the election cycle, leading into the election itself and where everyone stands now. I know it’s a tall request, but it would add a greater perspective to it all. As it shows now, it still looks like “my daddy can beat up your daddy” kinda thing over and over… and “my daddy” keeps winning! LMAO!
Sorry, I just thought I’d ask is all.
To Josh…
Beck is a Libertarian, and for those interested… a Mormon… That’s M-O-R-M-O-N… not; m-o-r-o-n! Haha!
there’s nothing in this data that identifies conservative or liberal or independent. it’s just the number of people who choose to watch a certain show over others. for me, oreilly jokes a lot, obermann is scowling all the time, while brown is ever serious. the mood of the day usually decides which to watch, but in the long run, i go for the happy guy. he seems to say that after all this noise and fury, there are yet more important things in life.
As a non-partisan independent, I can’t disagree more. I still can’t stand Fox news in the same way I can’t stand MSNBC. If independents are using FNC as their major news source, they’re probably not as independent as they think they are. Or if they’re truly independent, they’re probably watching all three.
“a good part of that could be due to government spending, the increase in size of government, a renewed interest in small government, etc.” are not independent viewpoints. They are conservative viewpoints.
I think it really is exactly as simple as this: in a time of a Democratic administration, conservative fear sells. If this is a McCain administration, these ratings would be a push.
i agree ric
Note that my distinction in independent and conservative is that without words like “wasteful” inserted into many of those phrases, you’re saying independents are adverse to government spending. This would be factually incorrect when bumped up against American history and just about every crisis the United States has faced.
why is someone not truly an independent if they watch foxnews…
details, details, details
small government was also a vision of our founders…
Really? That’s not what I glean from Hamilton at all. History is more nuanced than talking points.
Or Washington or Adams come to think about it… Their issue was an oppressive government, they were indifferent to its size. This debate has been going on as long as the country has existed.
Even if there were two or three conservative channels for FNC to compete with “conservative slanted” Cable news would still rule. FNC would likely continue to rule on top of that. More people typically watch it than the “liberal slanted” channels COMBINED. So its not like its exactly 50/50 on “liberal slant” vs. “consevative slant”.
As a registered independent, I find FNC less insulting of my views and less bias.
BOR was just on slightly defending Obama and the Nobel Peace prize. He said the outrage against it isn’t warranted. He is about as middle of the road as ANY commentator on the air.
MikeB, the chart here is, I think, basically what you are looking for. The data prior to 1/1/08 is pretty flat, so I didn’t see a point in extending the chart back.
The reason the 25-54 demo is important is covered pretty well in other parts of this site. In short the demo, not always overall viewers, is what advertising cost is based on.
Sorry, the link didn’t post. It was late last month with a title along the lines of fox ratings near election peak.
@Shannon
Journalistic integrity won’t backfire on them, notice how Fox seems to lack that. Remeber, ratings don’t equal legitimacy, just money, which is the only thing Fox cares about.
To MikeS;
So sorry, I didn’t look at the dates on the bottom of your chart, I had grown accustomed to your previous (shorter timeframe) charts. I apologise.
I understand the reasons (in part) for the demos, but I fail to understand why 35-54 y.o. range are counted in both demos, each demo overlaps the other, so those that fall into that age group are counted twice.
@MikeS:
The fact that the charts are flat prior to 01/01/08 is actually significant when compared to what came after. The pot got stirred and is still boiling and mixing. The upward trend is obvious for FNC. The trend elsewhere is not as discernable. Those numbers appear to have journeyed back to 1/1/08 levels and may continue down. Was the pot stirred because of political events and their relative coverage, or because of programming and personnel changes? Perhaps it’s some of both.
Great charts. Thanks.
Sharon
Tsk Tsk Tsk
Journalistic integrity won’t backfire on them, notice how Fox seems to lack that. Remeber, ratings don’t equal legitimacy, just money, which is the only thing Fox cares about.
I don’t remember are CNN and MSNBC non profit news organizations or did it just work out that way?