We're now seeing the crumbling of the Fox News empire as we know it. [View all]
I go weekly to catch the ratings of cable news shows in the 25 to 54 year old demo. Those are the only viewers advertisers care about, and I've seen MSNBC prime time gradually steal those viewers from Fox over the past year or so. Beginning election day, MSNBC shows like Mathews and Maddow have consistently overtaken their competitors on Fox nearly every day of the week. O'Reilly's a tough one, so Ed hasn't fared as well, but even he has narrowed the race in his unenviable time slot.
Money talks and bullshit walks away with a gimp in this business, and Murdoch will now be forced to re-examine his ideals vs his wallet, and even the skeptics know how that will turn out. Ratings are starkly Darwinian in nature, and will weed out the weak, and Murdoch will have to emulate his competition if he wants to remain on top. I'm sure O'Reilly's show is safe for now, but the others will have to either adapt or spend the rest of their careers pushing gold coins and Carbonite™ over the squealing static of AM radio.
How will the Freeps and TeaBillies take it when the realize they have become quaintly passe' in the world of TV news? Remember, these people issue death threats when their TV heros even hint that a Democrat may anything other than the political incarnation of Satan. Alan Colmes comes to mind:
MSNBC rode the wave of Pres. Obama’s re-election doubling the number of younger viewers who watched primetime in Nov. ’11. MSNBC was up +108% in A25-54 viewers in primetime (8-11pm). The network — #2 behind Fox News — dropped a bit from October, but still grew its total day demo viewership experiencing its best month in almost 10 years.
The ratings for November 2012:
•Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1,284,000 Total Viewers / 447,000 A25-54
•Total Day (Mon-Sun): 723,000 Total Viewers / 258,000 A25-54
“Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “Politics Nation,” “The Ed Show” and “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” had record months. “Martin Bashir” at 4pm and “The Last Word” at 10pm posted the best total viewer delivery in the history of MSNBC in those time periods.
MSNBC finished as the 10th most-watched network on all of cable and had the biggest year-over-year gain among any cable network in the top 30 for the month. Many shows had their best total viewer months since Nov. ’08, including “Morning Joe” — #2 behind “Fox & Friends” — and “The Daily Rundown” which drew the best 9am audience ever among A25-54 and “Jansing and Company” at 10am which had its best A25-54 delivery ever and the best demo performance in the hour since Nov. 2008.
Article continued here:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/november-2012-ratings-msnbc-doubles-audience-in-past-year_b156669
You can follow the daily tally of ratings yourself here:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/category/ratings
I keep the link on my desktop and follow it like many keep up with their hometown sports team. I love this game.
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