Friday Ratings: Nearly Five Million Viewers For FOX Prime (Heh heh heh)

Cablenewser ^ | 06/14/04 | CableNewser

[Pikamax]

Friday Ratings: Nearly Five Million Viewers For FOX Prime The day-long coverage of Reagan's final memorial services drew many viewers to cable on Friday: > From 10am to 3pm: FOX averaged 2,845,000 persons 2+, while CNN had 1,512,000 and MSNBC had 832,000.

> From 7:30 to 11pm: FOX averaged 4,664,000 persons 2+, while CNN had 2,903,000 and MSNBC had 1,293,000.

> Total day: FOX averaged 2,037,000 persons 2+, while CNN had 1,186,000 and MSNBC had 577,000.

CNBC's ratings are particularly interesting. They averaged only 139,000 viewers during the Washington coverage, and 142,000 Friday evening.

[susiek]

I think the numbers are partly because people knew they could trust Fox not to have liberal commentators slipping in anti-Reagan comments and also because Fox was doing less talking overall. They still had moments when it would have been nice to hear nothing and just watch, but they talked far less than anyone else (not counting C-Span with no talking at all.)

[alisasny]

Alot of people were watching. How do they figure how many people though. I would figure a lot more although my neighbor across st. was cleaning his roof during the National service so maybe many did not watch.

[Huck]

That's interesting. I don't think I watched Fox very much at all the whole week. Something about having half the screen filled up with worthless animations. My first choice was CSPAN, who gave me 24 hour coverage with the very least graphics. Next choice was MSNBC, who seemingly always do a better job with a live news story than Fox. And every now and then I would turn on Fox to see if they had a compelling conservative guest, but I think all the compelling conservatives were at the service!

[dawn53]

I moved around during the coverage, probably watched Fox more, but also tuned back and forth to MSNBC and Cspan. I avoided CNN.

Worst Fox offense, IMHO, was they cut away to O'Reilly just after the service in the Rotunda.

The other stations stayed on the people paying their respects in the Rotunda, and that included, Lady Thatcher, Mulrooney, lots of Reagan administration folks like Al Haig, etc.

[BurbankKarl]

even people who aren't Foxphiles were tuning to Fox because the libbies can't keep their traps shut.

Now, the question I have, do they also count local affiliates that aired the Fox feeds? Like Fox11 and UPN13 in Los Angeles? They both carried Fox generated feeds during the week.

[susiek]

I didn't see that, but I agree that Fox goofed there. I just liked Fox's coverage of the pre-service stuff more because they didn't have anchors or commentators slipping in comments about Reagan's legacy being "questionable" or some other nonsense like I knew the other networks would. During the time just before the services, I turned to C-Span to avoid the chatter.

[Interesting Times]

Ping.

[onedoug]

For what I watched - and I like Reagan - CNN took it hands down.

[TomGuy]

I had the TV on FoxNews but it was most background and muted most of the time.

I had CBS webcam as the best--no talk, no banners, etc. That was until Friday when they went with Blather's coverage and messed up the webcam.

Otherwise, I mostly viewed via CSPAN.

It would be interesting to see figures for those who viewed coverage almost exclusively via Internet.

[OldFriend]

Lester Holt was not to be missed. Just my opinion, of course. FNC is coasting on past reputation. There were moments where other channels did a better job.

Perhaps most recorded FNC.....and were out of the home or simply recording and not watching.

[Reagan Man]

Fox may have won the ratings, but CSPAN offered the best coverage. The lack of commentary --- talkingheads/chatterboxes --- was a winner.

[DanielLongo]

I had to suffer through CBS making favorable comparisons between Reagan and Clinton. It reminded me of why my family doesn't watch television. Rabbit ears went back into cold storage until the next big event. The television narrowly missed a pass with my right foot. I had to turn the sound off to appreciate the service.

[Mo1]

From 7:30 to 11pm: FOX averaged 4,664,000 persons 2+, while CNN had 2,903,000 and MSNBC had 1,293,000

HA! .. Take that Chrissy Matthews

[StriperSniper]

CNBC's ratings are particularly interesting. They averaged only 139,000 viewers during the Washington coverage, and 142,000 Friday evening.

So 3000 people couldn't find their remotes on Friday?

[hilaryrhymeswithrich]

I was among the first 35 people in line in DC and thus serious interview fodder. We all asked who the reporter was with before granting interviews. By and large, ABC< CBS< NBC got nos unless they were local affiliates. CNN had to go down a hundred people or more to find someone who would agree to talk, FOX got every interview they asked for.

Later in the day when a Fox news guy walked by he was cheered. We know the games that are being played and we have wised up!

[samadams2000]

That chrissy mathews was disgusting.

[CyberAnt]

I know Time Warner gathers stats on how many are watching what. They told me that up front when I got the cable service. They said all they gather is the program you're watching.

[John Jorsett]

What I find amusing is the people who complain about Fox. Evidently, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and the three major networks aren't enough for them; Fox's mere existence is a threat. Tell them that people are free to seek whatever media they choose, and they become completely unhinged. Apparently we right-wingers are kicking in people's door and super-gluing their TV tuners to Fox. That's about the only explanation they have for Fox's popularity against the other networks.

[BlessedBeGod]

On the advice of some wonderful FReepers, I tuned into CSPAN instead. At one point I went back and forth between the two for a few minutes out of curiosity, but got tired of Brit Hume talking and watched CSPAN exclusively after that.