Posted on 06/01/2013 7:51:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Our friend Jim Geraghty stumbles across some numbers which may serve to take the collective temperature of the electorate more than any poll coming out of the political analysis factory. (This was also featured in the Morning Jolt, in case you’re not signed up for it yet.) In the midst of a prolonged media strike on various “wacko birds” and a general theme that conservatives were once again in trouble, there seems to be a distinct lack of interest in politics on the part of the Obama faithful.
Read the complete rankings, May 2013 versus May 2012, via Nielsen:
Total Day
FNC: 1,246,000 total viewers, up 24 percent (236,000 in 25-54, down 5 percent)
CNN: 465,000 total viewers, up 61 percent (161,000 in 25-54, up 92 percent)
MSNBC: 346,000 total viewers, down 10 percent (115,000 in 25-54, down 7 percent)
HLN: 494,000 total viewers, up 111 percent (175,000 in 25-54, up 90 percent)Primetime
FNC: 1,973,000 total viewers, up 17 percent (308,000 in 25-54, down 6 percent)
CNN: 660,000 total viewers, up 70 percent (225,000 in 25-54, up 97 percent)
MSNBC: 539,000 total viewers, down 20 percent (175,000 in 25-54, down 19 percent)
HLN: 624,000 total viewers, up 91 percent (209,000 in 25-54, up 97 percent)
There are a number of nuggets to look at here, none of which seem to fit with current media gossip lines. Fox is up again, though not by a larger margin than you might expect. CNN Headline News was up massively, but as Geraghty points out, it was largely due to their wall to wall coverage of the Jodi Arias trial which kept all the gossip columnists riveted for months. CNN was the butt of many jokes for their jumping the gun on a number of stories, particularly the Boston bombing, but they still managed a staggering jump in their numbers. (Could that be because Jake Tapper joined the crew and lent some credibility to the network in the middle ground between the day shift and the evening?)
But who did that leave to soak up the losses? Yes… MSNBC. Particularly their evening, personality driven, opinion shows.
The soft start for All In With Chris Hayes has not helped. Hayes, down 32 percent in total viewers from The Ed Show last May, has offered a poor lead-in for MSNBC’s primetime flagship, The Rachel Maddow Show, at 9 p.m. The show delivered its lowest-rated month since it debuted in September 2008 (717,000 total viewers) and its second lowest with adults 25-54 (210,000). Maddow was topped by typical time slot victor Sean Hannity and CNN’s Piers Morgan.
I’m not sure which is worse… losing to Piers Morgan or to a spinal inversion therapy infomercial, which probably garnered about the same ratings. But viewer habits can sometimes tell us more than a snapshot delivered by a polling firm which relies on people willing to sit through a phone survey during an off cycle year. As Jim notes, even some of the most liberal bloggers are taking on a decidedly Eeyore tone and wondering if the boat is springing a leak.
Ratings aren’t a perfect indicator either, of course, but it does seem to follow a pattern. Mid-term elections tend to produce low turnout for younger voters and the majority of liberal activist blocks. Or maybe the scandals in DC actually are taking a toll and disillusion is setting in. Either way, we’ll need a few more cycles to see if this is a trend or an aberration.
I didn’t think it could get any worse.
When you put fags and lesbians in prime time your bound to...go south as they say.
>> primetime flagship, The Rachel Maddow Show
Is that a typo? Shouldn’t it be “fag”ship instead?
The only reason CNN is beating PMSNBC is because the commie libs have it turned on everywhere you go. Airports, McDonalds, doctor’s and dentist’s offices, hospital. You know, places where there is a “captive” audience.
RE: the commie libs have it turned on everywhere you go. Airports, McDonalds, doctor’s and dentist’s offices, hospital.
I wonder why that is... Any reason why these places can’t turn on FOX News instead?
I don’t know. I think most places think that if they turn on FOX, the commie libs will start whining, crying and wetting their pants and then start a boycott. Conservatives don’t have time for that crap.
I always ask them to change the channel. Most of the dumbed down crowd go to whatever comes up first on the channel guide. They don't have a clue.
The media continues to refuse to admit that most Americans are not anti-American.
I’m from a coservative area in CA...... it’s almost always FNC around here.
MSNBC is television’s equivalent of watching used toilet paper.
I am sure Chrissy and Rachel are leaning forward as they bend over the bowl hurling at this news.
There are some mighty mean people over there.
I am sure Chrissy and Rachel are leaning forward as they bend over the bowl hurling at this news.
There are some mighty mean people over there.
And the flip side is that when they show MSNBC, all the conservatives walk past, mutter "What fools", and keeps going.
If we lodged a protest every time -- every time -- we saw MSNBC in a public area, we could probably make them permanently disappear.
And, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.
.
I watched Nancy Grace or HGTV (aka FREAKS gardening/ remodeling) simply because Sean Hannity has become unwatchable. He repeats the same crap over and over and over and over again, it is nauseating!
Seems pretty natural.
What does MSNBC have to talk about??
, versus what does FNC have to talk about? They got real stuff to report on,
Should be no surprise. Don't expect it to last forever.
The ratings data does not square with elections results.
We’re a conservative Country held hostage to something very #ing evil.
Judging from the occasional glimpes of MSNBC I might catch while flipping through the channels, they obviously seem to be targeting the whiney, urban homo audience. Can’t imagine anyone beyond that category finding it remotely palatable.
Of course, FoxNews hasn’t been any great shakes in recent years either. Especially since Rove started appearing. Seemed to go from offering a mildly generic conservative voice, to a rather beltway-centric mouthpiece for the GOP establishment. They really lost me.
CNN? All I’ve noticed is that they seem obsessed with the topic of “race.” Haven’t given them the time of day in years, so can’t even comment much on them.
Funny, I’ve always been such a news/political junkie, going back to the Reagan era, and used to watch just about everything to one degree or another. Just can’t stomach it anymore. Don’t watch any of it. I think the whole dreary, depressing 2012 campaign season just killed my longstanding interest and enthusiasm altogether.
Rachel is more likely leaning over a urinal.
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