Ordinarily, I'd wait until the end of the year to post a year to year ratings comparison, but if Bill Carter at the New York Times can do a comparison already, so can I.
Read the other Bill if you'd like prose, but here are all the charts with the numbers, many that weren't in the Carter piece. (although I am not 100% certain that his end date for the 2009 year to date numbers was the same as mine, it shouldn't make much difference).
Some numbers highlights:
- CNN will finish 3rd in the adults 25-54 demographic in primetime behind Fox News and MSNBC for the first time. They got absolutely crushed in primetime year over year, declining 43% in the 25-54 demo and 31% in average viewers.
- Fox News was up across the board year over year, by 8-19% in the different categories pictured in the charts. Their adults 25-54 demographic (targeted by cable news advertisers) is bigger than CNN and MSNBC's put together. Also, their average viewerships in both Total Day and Primetime are at all time highs.
- MSNBC is also well down from its 2008 levels (11-26% in the different categories), but held up better vs. last year than did CNN.
- Headline News was also up across the board by 9-17%. They went from 44% of CNN's primetime demo rating to 85%.
- While CNBC was well down in Total Day numbers (14-17%) presumably post financial crises in the Fall o 2008, their primetime numbers (which have little to do with breaking financial news) were more stable (+1%, -6%)
Time periods:
2008 : 12/31/2007 - 12/28/2008
2009YTD : 12/29/2008 - 12/15/2009
Big Keith is single-handedly keeping MSNBC’s decline from being as steep as CNN’s. Sure he’s a tad down in a few demos, but who isn’t??? I mean, except for everyone at Fox. But Big Keith is so smart, he doesn’t need as many viewers as Red Eye…
Sorry, but KO is not down “a tad”
In 2008, he had 471k in the demo
(http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/12/18/msnbc-has-best-year-ever-%E2%80%93-is-fastest-growing-channel-in-all-of-television-in-2008/9808)
This year, he had 360k…which is a drop of 23%.
(that’s a lot of “tads” there)
On behalf of Fox News I would like to thank all of the little people who helped make this a great year for Fox. Barak Obama, Gibbs, Oberman, Maddow, and all the far left that make up 9% of the American public. You provided Fox with tons of free publicity in the news and in the blogs that has given Fox News great ratings this year. Please do it again next year. Mr Obama we beg you to pick a fight with Fox again in 1010. Far lefties, we beg you to keep calling Fox “Faux News” and kepp up all your other vitriolic comments.Again we thank you for not only making Fox number one but also making Fox the only channel of the thre “majors” to make gains instead of declines!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Bill Gorman. Thank you for all your hard work! You provide a great service and a wonderul venue to opine in.
The other day I was programming the QAM channels on my TV and I watched a few minutes of Headline News.
It’s changed a lot. This is not the Headline News of 5 or 6 years ago. I can see why they’re getting good ratings.
now let us observe this moment of silence for K.O. Lover….HAHAHA
Olberman, like a lot of folks, is doing the thing they think Fox is: shouting, cursing, maligning people/places/things, all to get ratings.
But the problem is, that’s not what Fox is doing. It’s journalism. While no one’s 100% impartial they actually _try_. I can’t TELL you how many times the other guys are making things up, calling their audience idiots, and following the democratic party line past the point of absurdity.
Like the blue dress; like climategate.
People notice these things. And no amount of hateful splash will replace good, honest journalism. Heck, even Colbert and that other guy are getting the ratings of these billion-dollar news agencies. Doesn’t that strike anyone ELSE as being a problem?
“Heck, even Colbert and that other guy are getting the ratings of these billion-dollar news agencies. Doesn’t that strike anyone ELSE as being a problem?”
You do realize that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are comedy shows, right? On Comedy Central? Comparing their ratings to those of cable news networks means NOTHING. I bet South Park has a higher rating than cable news, too. So what? You’re comparing apples to orangutans.
Also, you’re full of crap if you believe that Fox “tries” to be impartial. Please. Clearly they’re spewing whatever it is you want to hear, but claiming that they strive to be impartial is absurd. Plus, the highest rated shows on Fox aren’t even “anchored” by journalists. O’Reilly, Beck, Hannity…these men are NOT journalists. They’re talking heads. They’re political commentators. I’m not suggesting that other networks don’t employ political commentators (of course they do), but if you really think that Fox is the place to go for serious journalism, you’re sadly mistaken. Journalism in cable news is dead. Ratings are driven by our hunger for sensationalism not our quest for knowledge.
Moxy,
Then how do you explain where Fox News does journalism-only during the day they are still wiping up the competition? Fox News has Special Report, which is the only show on all of cable news that even resembles the broadcast news that we are all used to. Check out Special Report’s ratings. Its not too shabby, as well as On The Record’s.
On topic, I read Bill Carter’s piece in the NY Times and want to puke. CNN wants us all to believe they don’t have a bias, and now have others doing the dirty work for them. Please. BTW-Special Report beats them too. If you want to compare apples to apples. Or rotten apples, whatever you like.
“You’re full of crap if you believe that Fox “tries” to be impartial. Please. Clearly they’re spewing whatever it is you want to hear, but claiming that they strive to be impartial is absurd. Plus, the highest rated shows on Fox aren’t even “anchored” by journalists.”
It is true that O’reilly, Beck and Hannity are commentators, but they openly admit it. They will never say that they are serious journalist. That’s why you never see them doing live election coverage or giving their opinion during a live news event. MSNBC has commentators masquerading as journalist. People like David Shuster, Rachel Maddow, and even Chris Matthews. The worst is clearly Keith Olbermann who calls out Fox News as an arm of the republican party, while at the same time only inviting left-wingers. Fact is that Countdown is an arm of the democratic party and everyone knows it.
As for Fox News “spewing whatever it is you want to hear,” just keep repeating this non-sensible talking point as Scott posted in a post above mine. Fox’s ratings will just keep rising and rising, and it’s not even an election year.
Oh no, no, no. I’m not an advocate of “anything but Fox.” I don’t think we should put stake in ANY cable news networks. They’re all crap. Like I said, everything’s about sensationalism, not news. It’s not enough for Hannity and O’Reilly to admit they aren’t journalists when it still stands that a larger portion of viewers than I’m comfortable with thinks that they ARE. The same goes for commentators on any other network, although I don’t think anyone’s mistaking Olberman for a journalist; his show’s purely entertainment.
And ratings don’t mean a damn thing when it comes to the validity of a “journalistic” piece. The more people that watch, the truer the report? That’s nonsensical.
My concern lies with the people who watch Glenn Beck or Keith Olberman and take everything they hear as either fact or as a valid opinion. Often times, the things these guys say are just…insane. And when you have viewers who are willing to take EVERYTHING they hear at face value, it’s really quite disconcerting.
“…Read the other Bill if you’d like prose”.
Bill, you are WAY too generous. More like utter sophomoric rubbish from a freshmen high school newspaper writer talking about the upcoming football game. I guess this is about as close as unbiased as the NYT can come.
From NYT:
“…But CNN staff members are increasingly expressing concern about the competitive trend in prime time, which is by far the biggest center of profits for the news networks. In recent months, CNN, with one of its strongest anchors, Anderson Cooper, has fallen behind even a repeat of MSNBC’s leading show, with host Keith Olbermann, at 10 p.m. weekdays, though Mr. Olbermann’s show is down 13 percent for the year.”
Uh, where’s the mentioning of who CNN/MSNBC is distantly trailing? Didn’t cite Bill O, Beck, etc. ONCE in this article. But name dropped (plugged?) his buddies at the aforementioned networks. It probably pained him to even type the words Fox.
Just another example of why liberal media is in the crapper.
Moxie:
I’m a Glenn Beck fan and I wondered if you could enlighten me ? Could you give me a couple of examples of Glenns non-facts.
And FOX just gets better and better. Congrats to FOX, keep up the GREAT work! You report and we decide, by watching you!
Jim,
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200912180003
Glenn Beck is awesome!
Glenn Beck plays Obama’s aides’ speeches more often than any other show. He lets them speak for themselves, and then just points out how they are communists.
Also, regarding Media Matters, they are a joke. One time they blasted Beck for supposedly saying Obama was the antichrist and Olberman repeated the Media Matters report almost verbatim. Glenn was highly amused by this since he was mocking the idea that Obama was the antichrist, not supporting it. The video was obvious.
I’m not saying Beck is always right. But at least he shows what the opposition has to say in their own words, often in long and uncut speech videos. He doesn’t air much of Gibbs, but Beck airs more book transcripts and speeches from more Obama appointees than any other show I’ve seen.
When Media Matters would write the exact opposite of the blatant truth, and Olberman would read it without checking the source material, that speaks badly for both sources and I wouldn’t trust anything they’d have to say.
Likewise for CNN and their well deserved tumble in the ratings. This should have happened when they were openly reporting from Iraq through the eyes of Saddam’s handlers. That’s shameful.
It’s no wonder Headline is beating them, even with a fairly soft prime time.
I have been a registered Democrat since 1965 and used to watch CNN most of the time. A friend strongly recommended FOX NEWS to me a few years ago. Now I watch it almost exclusively. To those who would denigrate FNC with all of the mindless leftwing attacks, may I suggest that you watch O’Reilly and Special Report (just those two shows) for a week and then make a fair and balanced objective analysis. I think that you may be surprised to learn that the naysayers have no substance to their attacks, and that FNC is a strong #1 for very good reasons.
Dave,
You answer Jiim’s question to show where Glenn Beck lies about his facts with an article form the lefts media matters. Now that article shows not one fact that Glenn Beck has given that can be proven false. What it does do is take Glenns conclusions and calls them conspiracy without taking to task anything that Glenn has said, only his conclusions. But here is the deal Dave:
We know and have known for decades what the far left socialist wing of the democratic party believes. They will openly and honestly proclaim it and has. Glen doesnt just throw things out. He plays unedeted clips of the things these guys have said. They openly say they want to redistribute. They openly say that Mao is their mentor. They openly say all kinds of socialist things. But they are not saying anything surprising or that we did not know that the far left honestly believes.
What Glenn is saying is these are now the people that the President has surrounded himself with.
What that Media Matters article is saying in essence is that just because the president hads surrounded himself with these far left people doesn’t mean he wants a socialist agenda. And that my friend on the onset, is absurd! They openly admit on video to a socialist agenda!
So we will ask again. This time I ask you Dave. Watch the show yourself for one week. Give me one example where Glenn Beck gives one fact that is not true! I’ll check back here in 8 days to see what that mistake is. You will have a hard time. Even the White house themselves try to every week and cannot come up with any. I think if they could you would hear all about it on Oberman and Maddow and Matthews. But you don’t. So I chalenge you my friend!
Today I was watching Morning Joe and had to laugh, they were covering climate change/Copenhagen and it seemed they were just now covering the e-mail (“Climategate”) situation. It was really funny, they didn’t know what “they call it” (did they mean fox and the entire international world when they refered to what “they” call it??) and decided it was called e-mailgate. For weeks this has been IMPORTANT news, that has been raising a lot of questions and causing tremedous debate, etc. and it seemed they were just now aware of it?? How insane is that?? I had to laugh because it was so ridiculous… glad I don’t rely on them for my news on a regular basis! Classic case of where Fox is spot on, nobody else covers these types of issues until the absolutely have to. Are they hoping the stories will die and that Americans don’t find out unless they absolutely have to??
The reason MSNBC, CNN, Headline News, etc., are so far behind Fox, is the lack of editorial integrity. They will refuse to air the stuff that really matters even when it goes against their beliefs… until they look like bloomin idiots if they don’t. It all boils down to true, gut wrenching, intellectual honesty. The more seriously engaged american public are not entirely blind to it. Hence the disparity in the ratings. Moreover I feel sorry for the people at those organization who are unwilling to change their views to conform to the facts. They are just sick- really sick and they don’t believe they need to change what their behavior- just as a person who is physically sick doesn’t want to eat. You practically have to spoon feed it to them.