You don't say.
Posted on 04/01/2011 7:52:05 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Ratings for Fox News are in the doldrums, down 21% in primetime so far this year. But don't cry for the right-leaning network -- it's been number one on cable for nine years now, and it still has the top 12 shows.
According to a report from Business Insider, Bill O'Reilly remains in the top spot, but he lost 14% of his audience from the same three-month period last year. Sean Hannity places second, down 19%. Bret Baier (whoever he is) is third, beating out Glenn Beck, who has lost a whopping 30% of his audience.
CNN and MSNBC have been the beneficiaries of Fox's decline. CNN is up by 28%, led by Anderson Cooper's 18% rise, and MSNBC saw a 9% ratings growth. Its star Rachel Maddow has 16% more viewers.
Business Insider speculates on the possible reason:
This time period last year was dominated by the health care debate and for much of that period Fox operated as an extension of the opposition. Now that the nation's focus is international it's harder to figure out an angle where Obama is bad and...nuclear meltdowns and Qadaffi are good.
Another explanation could be that CNN and MSNBC have been doing so poorly in recent years that there was no place else to go but up.
(Excerpt) Read more at opposingviews.com ...
Fox should create a Headline News-type channel, but with Headline News’ old format of actual news 24/7.
FoxNews needs more lesbitarians!
Certainly made me wonder if Soros $$ could influence Neilsen and Fox ratings. Perhaps in efforts to get them to change what "works". Fox is better than the rest. No comparison.
We found CNN’s coverages of the “Japan” episode to be better than FOX.
April fools...
I don’t think Fox is in trouble. Their competitors numbers aren’t even in the same category. We all have different tastes but FOX is still the only outlet that isn’t hostile to the conservative viewpoint even if it does not act entirely as the vanguard of it. MSNBC got rid of Olbermann which has probably helped its numbers. I’d personally be up for a show on Fox that is a little less Hannity and a bit more David Kupelian some who can address with reasoned argument the “social issues” which I think is totally ignored except in piece meal yet I believe it would be very popular. As for Fox being the Jerry Springer TV news I have to ask has any watched CNN panels or MSNBC panels they are like liberal sledge pools where liberal conventional wisdom rules every round of dialog and even the “conservatives” are Nixon Republicans (aka rhinos) who are waving the white flag to liberal premises before they even get started or just sacrificial lambs surrounded and set up to be slaughtered like a conservative lamb to the liberal news Gods.
Sure Fox could be better and I’ve noticed some changes which I believe are taking away its edge. It should go back to reporting in the same fashion it did when its ratings were the highest. Sadly what happens is that when people are doing things right they assume they need to change those things they are doing right to do better which is often not the case.
What we need is a conservative news channel that puts forth the best of the best of reasoned conservative commentators who aren’t just fly by night radio hosts. Where are the Bill Buckley’s? We have hundreds of conservative scientists and thinkers who are REAL uncompromising conservatives and people who don’t appear as nuts, instead we have an endless parade of the same firebrands which God knows we need them but they don’t always appear as credible to large segments of potential allies. When is the last time when the gay marriage debate came up has there been a conservative researcher brought on to talk about the social implications and the research outside of religious implications? Since when as Fox did a news piece on the social disaster caused by single motherhood? On all of these issues there is a vacuum to be filled with credible debate but instead we have at the best conservative hosts who live and work in a liberal world and are often cowardly when addressing full spectrum conservatism. Even with the resent union protests where is the hard hitting discussion outside of John Stossle? Where are the interviews with those who have faced the heavy hand of union thuggery? Where is the analysis that shows the wage stagnating and homogenization and how that negatively affects the best and brightest teachers causing many to leave the field entirely?
I don’t expect this kind of news all the time but it would be really be nice for some real in depth conservative analysis for a change that doesn’t just scoot across the surface but goes head to head with the phony biased leftist academic output and popular culture.
That’s what happens when you become just like the rest.
The SNL impressions of Greta and Beck are hilarious. The BOR is not bad: “Am I right? Tell me where I’m wrong. OK, you can’t. The folks know I’m right.”
Or something like that...
Two things:
1) It's easy to go from a total disaster to just plain bad
2) These growth rates are misleading (on purpose) because their very low overall viewership skews the rate of increase. If I go from 2 viewers to 3 hey look at me I'm up 50%!
if you say so... I dig Krauthammer.. don’t always agree with him though. I’m with him probably 60 % of the time, which is more than I can say for any dem pundit or writer.
Hopefully, 0’pinhead ill be replaced with Judge napolitano, or Cavuto...
You’re probably right. Should have been tipped off when the article said “Bret Baier, “whoever that is)”.
I actually prefer the roundtable discussion format better than the cutesy-two minute quicky of the Fox format.
As to interviewers, the only one worth spit is Greta. She asks the right questions and lets the guest answer. All the other Fox bats have to interrupt and the guest vary rarely gets to answer.
This is my point. Conservative intellectuals don't watch SNL. The media is designed for the peasant class. Cheap entertainment with lots of spicy sex (Fox's Babes, SNL skits). Small minded entertainment for small minds. Give Brit Hume and Krauthammer (the closet lib) a show and let them use words that contain three, or, even four syllables!
Same people every night: Rove, Krathammer, PeRINO, Morris, etc.
CNN is gaining because of the disaster in Japan and Middle East reporting
“Greta is still good. Bret Baier, Cavuto and of course Megyn are still real professionals.”
Very true. And I only watch a net feed a few times a week.
The less watch TV the more you can appreciate the good and the more your abhor the bad aspects.
What's Glenn going to do when Romney is gone?
You don't say.
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