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All Cable But Fox News Cuts Brown Victory Speech in Favor of Coakley!When they say Fox News is fair and balanced they can prove it. Here is a comparison from Johnny Dollar showing the amount of time the cable news networks devoted to covering the Coakely concession speech and the Brown victory speech in last Tuesday's Massachusetts special election: You would think that considering Brown's amazing win, that his speech would be the greater story. But apparently the news directors at MSNBC and CNN thought that giving the loser more time was newsworthy. Read more at floppingaces.net ...

FOXNEWS HANNITY 6,809,000 FOXNEWS GRETA 6,399,000 FOXNEWS O'REILLY 5,228,000 FOXNEWS BECK 3,446,000 FOXNEWS BAIER 3,338,000 FOXNEWS SHEP 3,241,000 CNN KING 1,681,000 CNN COOPER 1,508,000 CNN BROWN 1,308,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,274,000 MSNBC MADDOW 1,236,000 CNN BLITZER 1,135,000 CNNHN BEHAR 845,000MSNBC HARDBALL 798,000

I just turned on my TV, and went directly to DIRECTV's "News & Information Channels". Right between FOX Business (Dave Ramsey) and FOX News (O'Reilly) is a click on for "The Australian Open Experience" (DIRECTV's channel mix). DIRECTV always places these next to HIGH TRAFFIC SITES. DIRECTV is acknowledging FOX is #1.

Sarah Palin was a smart hire for Fox News Channel, judging by the ratings for her debut on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Tuesday. The former Alaska governor's first appearance as an analyst drew 3.954 million viewers -- more than everything else on other cable new shows combined in the 8 p.m. hour.

While mainstream media members continue to belittle her at every opportunity, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin attracted huge audiences in her first two official appearances as a Fox News Channel contributor. Debuting on Tuesday's "O'Reilly Factor," the former vice presidential candidate drew almost 4 million viewers more than doubling the combined total of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and CNN's Campbell Brown. The following evening on "Glenn Beck," Palin attracted over 3 million -- at 5PM! Regardless of what her detractors say, Palin was a smash hit (complete numbers below the fold courtesy TVBytheNumbers.com, Tuesday first): 8PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64) The...

Love 'em or loathe 'em, and there seems to be little in between, 2009 was a remarkable year for Fox News Channel. Despite being ensnared in seemingly weekly controversies involving accusations that its coverage of the Obama administration was laced with right-wing political bias, the year-end numbers are in, and they show Fox News establishing dominance over rivals CNN and MSNBC. In short, 2009 was the best year in the network's 13-year history. According to Nielsen, the ten-most-watched cable news shows in 2009 were all Fox News programs. With conservative-leaning opinion shows like "The O'Reilly Factor," "Hannity," and "Glenn Beck"...

Five Reasons Why Fox News Dominated Ratings In 2009 by Steve Krakauer | 12:34 pm, December 18th, 2009 What we’ve known since about March is about to come true – Fox News is headed for its best ratings of all time this year. As their competitors in cable news fall far behind, FNC looks toward the rest of the cable universe as its new competition – it finished in the top five on all of cable in prime time and total day. What was the reason for FNC’s success? Heres’ five reasons. 1: Glenn Beck: Beck’s enormous success during his...

Fox News will finish 2009 as the top-rated cable news network, a perch it has enjoyed for eight years running. But 2009--the first year of the Obama administration--also marks FNC's highest rated year in the channel's 13-year-history. FNC topped the competition in all dayparts: morning (1 million total viewers, 340,000 viewers in news' target demographic of 25-54-year-olds); total day (1.2 million viewers, 323,000 in the demo); primetime (2.2 million viewers, 551,000 in the demo). Those numbers mark year-to-year demo gains of 14% in the morning, 16% in total day and 10% in primetime (Mon-Sun), according to Nielsen. FNC saw double-digit...

Let the battle begin. The two Celtic warriors, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, are now officially in a duel to the death after Hannity surpassed O'Reilly as the top cable newscaster of the past week. Sean Hannity's Wednesday interview with Sarah Palin averaged 4.2 million viewers, which was sufficient to crack the top ten telecasts in all of cable last week. O'Reilly's interview with Palin averaged 4.12 million viewers. It marks one of the first times that "Hannity" has ousted "The O'Reilly Factor" from the top spot and sets up a showdown between the two opinionated personalities, who both hail...

CABLE NEWS RACE NOV. 19, 2009 FOXNEWS O'REILLY/PALIN 4,120,000 FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,871,000 FOXNEWS BECK 2,730,000 FOXNEWS BAIER 2,359,000 FOXNEWS GRETA 2,113,000 FOXNEWS SHEP 2,078,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,188,000 CNNHN GRACE 1,018,000 CNN KING 980,000 MSNBC MADDOW 877,000 MSNBC HARDBALL 597,000 CNN COOPER 585,000

From Drudge: CABLE NEWS RACE NOV. 18, 2009 FOXNEWS HANNITY/PALIN 4,200,000 FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,868,000 FOXNEWS BECK 2,512,000 FOXNEWS GRETA 2,383,000 FOXNEWS BAIER 2,235,000 FOXNEWS SHEP 1,980,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,041,000 CNNHN GRACE 1,036,000 MSNBC MADDOW 957,000 CNN KING 835,000 MSNBC HARDBALL 625,000 CNN COOPER 611,000

Radio's Rush Limbaugh is not only good for his own business -- with a new eight-year contract offering him the potential to make $400 million -- he's also good for Fox News. Limbaugh's appearance on "Fox News Sunday" set a ratings record for the year so far for the network's Sunday morning counterpunch to "Meet the Press" and the rest. Limbaugh drew 3,892,000 viewers, including 1,180,000 in the coveted 25-54 age group, for the show on the Fox broadcast network and cable's Fox News Channel (2.35 million tuned in at FNC.) "I'm a ... guy who earns a percentage of...

Highlighting even further the ratings erosion at CNN in prime time, the “Most Trusted Name in News” finished in fourth place among cable news outlets during election coverage last night. Fox News was #1 by a mile, followed by MSNBC, then CNN sister network HLN and CNN in 4th place. They were fourth in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic. CNN’s 4th place finish last night was only made more glaring because last year’s election coverage on the network was their best night of all time. They didn’t just have more viewers than every other cable news network last...

Election Night ratings charts from mediabistro and TVbythenumbers

We’ve had lots of cable news charts on the site recently showing dramatic declines for both individual cable news show and cable news network ratings as a whole compared to their October 2008 election period. Many have asked about a comparison of Fox’s results with those of CNN and MSNBC, and reader MikeS has come through again, compiling the charts below showing the relative audience for each network compared to its October 2008 average for both adults 25-54 and average viewers. It’s pretty clear that the election year ratings hangover being suffered by both CNN and MSNBC initially struck Fox...

Before Glenn Beck started his new show on Fox News in January, he sat down with Roger Ailes, the network's chief executive, to make sure they were on the same page. "I wanted to meet with Roger and tell him, 'You may not want to put me on the air. I believe we are in dire trouble, and I will never shut up,' " said the conservative radio host. But before Beck could say anything, Ailes shared a message of his own: The country faced tough times, he said, and Fox News was one of the only news outlets willing...

It’s a nine-percent bump in the two weeks since Anita Dunn’s whine heard ’round the world — in terms of overall audience. Among the coveted 25-54 demographic? A 14-percent bump. Good work, Barry. People keep telling me that this PR offensive by the White House benefits both sides but I don’t see how that’s true. If the goal is to contain Fox by framing the stories it breaks — Van Jones, ACORN, etc — as somehow illegitimate, then every tenth of a point that Fox’s ratings go up undermines that goal. There will come a point where other news nets...

It’s a nine-percent bump in the two weeks since Anita Dunn’s whine heard ’round the world — in terms of overall audience. Among the coveted 25-54 demographic? A 14-percent bump. Good work, Barry. People keep telling me that this PR offensive by the White House benefits both sides but I don’t see how that’s true. If the goal is to contain Fox by framing the stories it breaks — Van Jones, ACORN, etc — as somehow illegitimate, then every tenth of a point that Fox’s ratings go up undermines that goal. There will come a point where other news nets...

CNN’s numbers drop 68% in prime to last place I have been reporting CNN’s bad numbers for some time and now it will be official when the October numbers are in, CNN is in last place behind MSNBC, HLN and you know who.CNN’s numbers have dropped in half overall (52%) and 68% in prime time comparing October 2008 to 2009, TV by the Numbers reported.In the 25-54 demographic, CNN dropped 62% overall and by 77% in prime time.Even the mainstream press is now reporting it. “The official monthly numbers will be finalized at 4 p.m. Monday and will include results...

Last May, I wrote on CNN's ratings troubles in prime-time, after being topped by MSNBC during the hours of 8pm to 11pm. But for the month of October, CNN was beaten by not only MSNBC in the 25-54 demo, but also its sister network, HLN. Fox News remains the dominant cable news network, and will easily hold onto the number 1 spot. The Times Bill Carter reports on the latest numbers, which will be finalized this afternoon. While CNN has lost before to MSNBC and HLN, there are some notable firsts in how poorly some of the network's shows are...