Ratings Down for Fox, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck (Maddow UP, CNN also UP)

Opposing Views.com ^ | 3/31/11 | Mark Berman

[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.

[dawn53]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/the-scoreboard-wednesday-march-30_b60282#more-60282

They might be down, but the viewership of most of the Fox shows (Beck, Baier, Shep, BOR) beats the viewership of all the other stations combined. (looks like Greta is the only one that doesn’t meet that observation)

[Frantzie]

Beck and O”Reilly make fun of birthers aka they are stooges for the Kenyan.

[brownsfan]

“When one (just one mind you) of CNN’s or MSNBC’s shows overtake one of Foxes shows, give me a call.”

Didn’t I just read where Anderson Cooper beat Greta?

[badpacifist]

April fools and March, May, June etc
My phone message today informs my customers I can longer serve them because I have gone off to Libya to fight for this courageous president. Also letting them know I can’t wait to go on to Yemen and Syria.

[dragonblustar]

I think its Fox’s coverage of the earthquake. Fox sucks when it comes to breaking world news disasters. Cnn does a better job. They get their fast and cover it longer unlike Fox who after Greta repeats O’Reilly and others.

[dragonblustar]

I think its Fox’s coverage of the earthquake. Fox sucks when it comes to breaking world news disasters. Cnn does a better job. They get their fast and cover it longer unlike Fox who after Greta repeats O’Reilly and others.

[VeeP22]

Conservatives are finally smartening up, Fox is in the “bag” like the rest of the crappy cable “news”. People can just take so much of the phony “personalities” “pundits” and screaming nonsense. I gave it up 10 years ago and haven’t
watched since.

[depressed in 06]

The premise that those leaving FOX are going to CNN and MSNBC is too ludicrous to believe.

I am waiting to see if Comcast becomes Commiecast with its acquisition of NBC.

[Arrowhead1952]

I’ve been leary of all threads today. When I saw this one: Lazamataz Vows Celibacy http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2698078/posts - I knew to be careful.

[JimSEA]

Bingo. A lack of hard news coverage forces people to look elsewhere. Then there is Shep.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Beck doesn’t show in prime time here - he’s on at 4pm. I find it hard to believe GB has lost almost a third of his viewing audience.

[Jane Long]

FNC is still running circles around the competition.

If only they'd replace Newt, Tokyo Rove, Beckle, Juan Williams, Dana PerRINO and BOR, they'd pick up many of the "lost" viewers, IMO.

Or, they could just have Donald Trump on every niight...lol.

[cripplecreek]

The numbers are down slightly, but still destroy the competition. The left is nitpicking certain parts of the ratings to create a story that simply is not there.

True enough. Beck's numbers are down from an all lime high and up from an all time low but he still has 3 times the viewers of his closest competition in his timeslot. I expect those numbers to fall during the summer because summer afternoons aren't big TV viewing hours.

Yesterday Media (Mythical) matters wrote that Beck was lying about being syndicated on over 400 radio stations.The problem is that Mythical Matters only counted down from the stations that have dropped him and ignored the 88 stations that picked up his show which puts him at over 430 stations.

Bret Baier is a top notch straight news man and really should be looked at differently. Shep Smith on the other hand is pure propaganda.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

I preferred Fox when it was “We report - you decide.”

Now it’s “Fair and balanced.”

It seems to me that “Fair and Balanced” means that if they report something bad about Democraps, they have to follow with something bad about Republicans.

[bmwcyle]

BOR insults Conservatives. No wonder.

[Hojczyk]

Gretta has the best show on fox primetime..

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Didn’t I just read where Anderson Cooper beat Greta?"

This was posted in post 15:

Net 10PM P2+ (000s) 25-54 (000s) 35-64 (000s)
FNC ON THE RECORD W/GRETA 1,488 382 726
CNN ANDERSON COOPER 360 783 370 410
MSNBC ED SHOW 824 291 471
CNBC DIVORCE WARS 263 97 144
HLN JOY BEHAR 231 90 105

[GraceG]

I am finding myself liking the shows on Fox Business more than Fox news.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Problem with Fox News is that it has become more of MSNBC and CNN

Fox now attacks Obama Eligibility proofers....supports liberal Free Trade and Globalist policies....and has no real conservatives as special correspondents.

MS Fox News and CNN Fox News are more accurate descriptions.

And, Fox will go more left...as Al Gore’s buddy James Murdoch assumes more control of NewsCorp from his daddy

[Jedidah]

Well, of course ratings are down.

1) It’s not an election year, and

2) Most of the major news this year has been foreign (Middle East uprisings, crisis in Japan, etc.) FOX is terrible at foreign news. CNN beats them easily with more resources and better reporting when live coverage is required.