Posted on 11/04/2004 7:03:00 AM PST by Pikamax
Other Networks' Election Loss Is Fox News's Big Gain
By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, November 4, 2004; Page C07
A record number of voters may have turned out for the presidential election Tuesday, but they didn't translate to record audiences for the broadcast networks' election night coverage.
On the other hand, Tuesday was a very good night for Fox News Channel, which logged its biggest prime-time audience ever.
Collectively, the broadcast networks fumbled about 8 million of the viewers who had watched their prime time on election night in 2000. Ironically, the only broadcast network that can boast an increase is Fox, which doesn't even have a news division. Fox broadcast network clocked an average of 4.7 million viewers from 8 to 10 p.m. Tuesday with election coverage provided by Fox News Channel and helmed by Shepard Smith. (Fox News Channel's own coverage was helmed by Brit Hume.)
An average of 15.2 million people watched Tom Brokaw's last presidential election in the NBC anchor chair during prime time, Nielsen Media Research reports. In 2000, NBC had averaged more than 18 million viewers in prime time on election night.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Fox was okay but they need to tweek their format. I think people are watching because people know they will be "fair and balanced" with the Republicans. It was boring though. Need to spice it up a bit.
Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark.
I watched NBC (with an hour break to watch the Daily Show special). Didn't get any better than Tim Russet with the Telestrator.
Dan Rather has completely lost it, as far as I'm concerned.
Fox got blown off their game by the exit polls, even Britt succumbed. They never recovered with the one glaring exception of Michael Barone whose analysis was simply magnificent, equalled only by our very own prognosticator Torie.
Fox had the guts to call Ohio first for Pres. Bush. It was monumential! NBC called it about an hour after, the other weenie networks have all lost their credibility. I wonder what the Nielsen rating is for CBS on election day.
Fox was okay, but what was wrong with Brit Hume? He was stuttering, obviously losing his train of thought, etc. It seemed as if he was suffering from sleep deprivation - from about 7:30pm on. I had to switch channels just because it got painful to watch him.
I do not understand why Fox Broadcast Network does not daily compete with the other broadcast networks. They would dominate every night. That equals ratings. Which equals commercials. Which equals revenues. It also means much happier citizens who cannot afford cable television.
i remain mildly pissed about FOX not having the nards to call the election when NV was clearly Bush's, but a few FREEPER comments have me back to taking big breaths and thinking of calmer thoughts.. go GW!!
Yeah, the exit polls sucked the energy right out of Fox News. It was awful and they finally decided to forget the exit polls. I don't know why they put Bill Kristol on the panel. He was boring, pessimistic and wrong. Barone was very good but he needed to put his thoughts together a little bit better before they went to him.
For the 2008 or 2012 elections, will there still be any such thing as Broadcast News Networks?
I agree. I watched Fox almost all night, but their format was not the best. They need to figure out better ways to cover issues such as senate control, house control, key races, etc.
The good thing that FOX did do was called Ohio the earliest with Michael Barone's help of explaining it. That took a lot of cajones. They never backed down.
Brit Hume was bumbling and probably is not the best with live coverage as it is happening. I think he is great but covering live stuff is not his strength.
Ummmm, Rather never 'had it' in the first place.
Fox was boring. Britt and the Allstars fumbled around with trying to figure out what was happening with actual results vs exit poll propaganda. They should have just leveled with us right up front that their exit info was way off base and then used prior polling and actual results. The result of their effort was not calling SC, NC and VA when they could easily have been called for Bush. They need to improve their graphics too. I want to see the map, and not just an endless scroll of results. I feel that Fox let us down and they should apologize. To their credit they did quit using the faulty polling. Still waiting to hear when criminal investigation of that is going to begin, or even be pushed by the networks.
I agree about Barone. He was fantastic. He knew his stuff.
while the MNM were calling BUSH - FOX was still calling kerry!
Like oreilly, FOX crawled to the knees of the elite N.E. leftists
Uh...there were ~other~ networks?....:)
Not bad considering Brit Hume was barely intelligible after about 11pm EST.
I agree with that. He was the best part of their coverage.
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