Lost in a lot of the political chatter that goes on whether it's the White House vs. Fox News or MSNBC vs. CNN is that regardless of the ratings, all of the news networks are making money. Whether they're all optimized for making the most money they could make is, of course, a different matter.
But when you hear that MSNBC is slowing its search for a host of a new show at 10pm because it's pleased with the ratings Keith Olbermann's show is getting in reruns at 10pm, you get the idea they're not exactly under the gun about current ratings performance.
NEW YORK — MSNBC is much less likely to start a third prime-time news show because its executives are pleased with how well a repeat of Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" is doing at 10 p.m. ET.
MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin talked this year of actively searching for a new 10 p.m. host. Reruns of Olbermann's 8 p.m. show have aired there since March 2008.
Yet in October, Olbermann has averaged 600,000 viewers in that later time slot, nearly on par with Anderson Cooper's 689,000 on CNN, the Nielsen Co. said. In the 25-to-54 demographic, which MSNBC most actively courts, Olbermann's rerun beat Cooper's first-run show in that hour for the first time ever. Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren leads with just under 2 million total viewers.
Olbermann's rerun is getting nearly 60 percent of the audience that his first-run show does earlier in the evening, Nielsen said.
"We're looking, but nothing (new) has even come close to going in there at 10," Griffin said. "We've set the bar so high we don't want to break that success."
Sad, really, when having the “third-most-popular” program in a time slot is acceptable because it doesn’t cost anything more to produce it. Sort of like NBC’s strategy with Jay Leno: “we don’t care if it gets poor ratings as long as we still make money”. Start of the death spiral IMO. Will be so glad when my company (GE) dumps this piece of crap from our portfolio.
@KD – Why would GE dump MSNBC if it’s “making money”? That would be silly.
What a HOOT!!! The headline below this is “Olbermanns Ratings Down 63% from 2008!” Yet MSNBC is PLEASED with this????? No wonder NBC and MSNBC is tabking. I remember an old bumper sticker fro the Vietnam War era, “What if they gave a war and no one showed up?” MSNBC’s could be “What if they broadcast a show and no one watched!!”
Maybe MSNBC could put Hugo Chávez on at 10 pm. I am sure he would appeal to their audience. They could have Hugo and Shawn Penn sit down with other Hollywood types and discuss the evils of capitalism.
Steve, almost everyone is down versus last year because of the election. For comparative purposes, sad as it may be (for CNN) I think MSNBC comparing itself to CNN is a reasonable and logical comparison for it to make.
Wow, MSNBC must have some pretty low standards if they’re “pleased” with Olberman’s ratings at 10 PM
More proof that MSNBC is living in an alternate reality. MSNBC should have no problem finding a 10PM show that can pull in around 1,000,000 viewers. A good 10PM host against one of Fox’s weaker shows (Greta) would be a huge boost to the network.
Also, a big L-O-L at “setting the bar so high”.
Robert,
You’re “almost everyone” being who??? CNN and who??? Fox is up, not down.
This is obviously another cost cutting measure by GE and NBC and has nothing to do with his performance or their inability to find another hack liberal leftie.
Worst network in the wooooorld!!!!
Why would it be a cost-cutting measure? Olbermann repeats have aired in the timeslot for over a year. And really, do we really need another news show? They all talk about the same thing over and over again, anyway.
Scott, what particular part of the basic math eluded you? And what part of “almost everyone” did you take to mean “everyone”?
Robert Seidman,
Fox News is up from last year. “Almost everyone” isn’t basic math either. Math is numbers not words. You didn’t provide any numbers to back up your argument. So looks like you’re the one that needs a math brush up.
Olbermann’s shows are all reruns. Whenever I tune in he is talking about Bush, Cheney, Palin. MSNBC is clearly running his old shows from 2008 over and over again. Must be a cost saving measure.
It’s hard to argue with ‘success’, what that means to you.
Doug (2) I think not making a move is a cost *saving* measure, not really a cost *cutting* measure.
There are only so many people who want to watch progressive, Obama-scum cockroaches like Olby. Getting a different cockroach won’t make much of a difference.
Oberjerk and msnbc are safe as long as they stay in the Dear Leader’s back pocket…..
Rerunning a show is obviously cheaper than the cost of producing a whole new show. Cost saving or cost cutting–let’s not get bogged down in semantics. Olberdouche is hardly worth the effort.
Weird…he wears more makeup and used more hair product than Maddcow
Down 63% off an election year is quite normal for a show like his.
The guy has raised 1.5 mil for a free health clinic. Good for him!
Hmm.