Free Republic

In a YouGov survey of 1,795 adult citizens conducted between Apr. 6 and Apr. 9, Iger is at -9 net, with 15% viewing him favorably and 24% unfavorably. Meanwhile, DeSantis is better known, but at least for some respondents, familiarity breeds contempt. The second-term Republican stands at -13 net; 34% view him favorably, with 47% regarding him unfavorably. DeSantis is in negative territory with most age, gender and racial cohorts, with only respondents 65 years of age and older regarding him favorably, albeit by a slender 48% to 44% spread.

ABC's telecast of South Carolina's win over Iowa is the most watched basketball game, college or pro, since 2019.For the third time in seven days, the NCAA women’s basketball tournament drew its largest audience ever.Some 18.7 million people watched South Carolina cap an undefeated season by beating Iowa, 87-75, in Sunday’s championship game, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings (which may edge up when final numbers come in early Tuesday). The audience is the largest ever for a women’s basketball game in the United States — and among the biggest for any women’s team sporting event.Sunday’s broadcast on ABC and ESPN...

CLEVELAND — Women’s college basketball continues to grab the nation’s attention at an unprecedented rate, and the metrics prove it. The Final Four game between Iowa and Connecticut on Friday was the most-watched basketball game ever aired on ESPN; an average of 14.2 million viewers tuned in, and the broadcast peaked at 17 million viewers. Iowa defeated U-Conn., 71-69, to advance to its second consecutive national championship game with star guard Caitlin Clark leading the way. The previous record for an ESPN basketball broadcast was 13.51 million viewers for Game 7 of the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference finals between the...

During the closing monologue of Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that while “inflation persists for a lot of things,” “Biden’s ratings are in the toilet, not because he’s doing such a bad job, but because a lot of Americans like to live with their head in the toilet” of poor perceptions about mental health. Maher began by saying, “[N]ew rule: Being obsessed with your mental health is bad for your mental health.” He continued, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a puzzle many are struggling with, why are Biden’s approval ratings so low when...

With only 19.5 million viewers, Sunday night’s Academy Awards bombed with the fourth-lowest viewership in Oscar history.

The head of the powerful Transportation Workers Union is warning members not to be “fooled” by the AFL-CIO’s recently published scorecards for U.S. Congress members - because the process is “deliberately biased” to boost Democrats. TWU national president John Samuelson sent a letter Thursday to his union’s 155,000 transit workers, airline staffers and other members, saying the AFL-CIO “disincentivizes pro-trade union Republicans,” leading to a rigged result in favor of Democrats in its Legislative Scorecards released Feb. 29. “Do not be fooled,” added Samuelson. The AFL-CIO - which is comprised of 60 international and national unions, including the TWU -...

@LeadingReport BREAKING: Fox News faced its lowest average audience since 2015 in 2023, most likely attributed to the firing of Tucker Carlson.

CNN anchor Dana Bash said Thursday on “Inside Politics” that President Joe Biden’s approval ratings on infrastructure, jobs, climate change, inflation, immigration were “not good.” Bash said, “Let’s put in context the politics of this for President Biden and how important it is—just one example from a Monmouth approval rating poll question. You look at the issues and how he fairs, infrastructure, jobs, climate change, inflation, immigration. He is now 26%. That is not good.”

This past Tuesday’s CNN Iowa town hall event with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did little to boost the corporate news networks ratings. According to newly released viewership numbers, DeSantis drew just 622,000 viewers in the 9:00pm time-slot. Fox News’s Sean Hannity, also airing in the 9:00pm slot drew 2.1 million viewers the same night. The entirety of the prime time line up for MSNBC and Fox News significantly outperformed the DeSantis town hall, with the Florida Governor drawing about half the viewers as the far-left conspiracy theorist Joy Reid.The DeSantis campaign has been plagued by an inability to connect with...

The fourth Republican debate on Wednesday night attracted an audience of just 4.1 million viewers in total, with 852,000 falling into the prime 25-54 age demographic. Presented by Megyn Kelly, Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation, and Eliana Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon, the broadcast also ran on NewsNation and the CW networkThe previous three debates tallied more audience numbers, peaking at 12.8 million viewers in August, with 2.8 million within the core demographic for the first debate hosted by Fox News.

NBC brought in 6.86 million total viewers and 1.3 million viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic during the 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. debate, according to Nielsen. The first debate this cycle, hosted by Fox News in late August scored some 12.8 million total viewers and 2.8 million viewers in the demo. The second debate hosted by Fox Business Network in late September brought in 9.3 million total viewers and 1.89 million demo viewers.

The late-night show’s Season 49 debut, hosted by Pete Davidson, marked its highest launch on Peacock The first episode of “Saturday Night Live” since the onset of the writers’ strike in May scored 4.8 million viewers, up 19% from last season’s 2022 premiere.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' confidence in two facets of the news media -- newspapers and television news -- has fallen to all-time low points. Just 16% of U.S. adults now say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers and 11% in television news. Both readings are down five percentage points since last year.Gallup has tracked Americans' confidence in newspapers since 1973 and television news since 1993 as part of its annual polling about major U.S. institutions. The latest readings are from a June 1-20 poll that saw declines in confidence ratings for 11 of...

X owner Musk came out swinging against the leftist media hall monitor NewsGuard and called for the whole company to be “disbanded immediately.” Musk responded to criticism from WikiPedia co-founder Jimmy Wales who whined in a post Oct. 17 about the X platform allegedly removing “all the core features that made it even remotely possible to tell real journalists from fakes.” Through discussion on the X thread, Foundation For Freedom Online Executive Director Mike Benz pointed out to Musk that Wales was an advisor to the leftist biased NewsGuard, “which is knee deep in a plot to get gov’ts to...

People were wondering how many people were tuned into the Fox Business RNC debate, the second GOP primary debate without Donald Trump. The answers are in per an NBC review of Nielsen ratings.Approximately 9.3 million people tuned in to watch the debate on Fox, Fox Business and Univision. That’s a drop of 27% from the first debate which had 12.8 million viewers.[…] Even though it was broadcast on Fox Business Network, Fox News Channel and Univision, it still attracted roughly 3.4 million fewer viewers than the first GOP debate just one month ago, which was hosted by the Fox News...

The second Republican primary debate on Wednesday drew a considerably smaller audience than the first debate, bringing in more than three million fewer viewers. Hosted at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the debate drew about 9.5 million viewers through Fox Business, the network's other channels, and Univision, The Hill reported, citing Nielsen data. The first debate drew in 13 million viewers, meaning the second debate saw a roughly 27% drop. Former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate in the race, attended neither event and the only lineup change on Wednesday evening was the absence of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson,...

Fox News’s first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential election exceeded expectations and brought in 12.8 million total viewers, according to data released by Nielsen ratings....Former President Donald Trump, who skipped Wednesday night’s debate to join Tucker Carlson for some counter-programming, claimed early Thursday morning he eclipsed all of television: “President Donald J. Trump’s blockbuster interview with Tucker Carlson reached over 100 million views on X less than 4 hours after premiering on the platform,” read a release from his campaign PAC, ....Of course, that’s not the whole story as “views” on Twitter are not remotely comparable to cable news...

Moody’s has cut the credit ratings of ten small and mid-sized banks. The agency cited higher funding costs, rising interest rates, and increased risked due to the failing commercial real estate sector. M&T Bank, BOK Financial, Webster Financial, Pinnacle Financial, Old National Bancorp, and Fulton Financial were among the banks that received downgraded ratings. But it does not stop there. Moody’s is also reviewing six giant banks, including Trist Financial, Bank of New York, Cullen/Frost Bankers, State Street, Northern Trust, and US Bancorp, as they may also be downgraded. Eleven other banks such as Capital One, Citizens Financial, and Fifth...

Image via Twitter With grand fanfare, Fox News rolled out its first night of the post-Tucker Carlson permanent primetime lineup Monday night. The ratings were released Tuesday, showing a freefall in viewership. Even Sean Hannity lost the ratings battle to MSNBC. Let’s just say that at this point the guys in the executive suites might need some smelling salts. JUST IN: Fox News ratings are in an absolute free fall after their primetime revamp turned out to be a massive flop. The once dominant news outlet is falling to MSNBC.According to @Chadwick_Moore, the Author of ‘Tucker,’ executives at Fox are...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has seen his approval rating fall dramatically two weeks after announcing his 2024 presidential bid.According to online polling company Civiqs' dynamic approval rating graph, DeSantis currently has a net approval rating of negative 19 points, with an average of 55 percent of respondents disapproving of him, compared with 36 percent who have a favorable view of the Republican.The data shows DeSantis has a major unfavorable rating from those aged 18-34 (63 percent), women (62 percent), as well as African Americans (85 percent), and the Hispanic/Latino population (68 percent).