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If you were a cable TV host whose audience size is obliterated by O'Reilly's, buried by Beck's, hammered by Hannity's and slam-dunked by Susteren's, would you really go around mocking someone else's ratings? Appparently yes, if you're Ed Schultz. The host of the miniscule MSNBC program went out of his way this evening to belittle the ratings of Dennis Miller's radio show . . . View video here.

With lots of cable news shows, the feast of the 2008 election has lead to famine in 2009. Countdown with Keith Olberman’s ratings are in the famine range as well, with October year over year ratings down 53% in the cable news target adults 25-54 demo, and down 53% in average viewership. Although I don’t have a trend chart, October is also Olbermann’s lowest rated month so far in 2009 in both 25-54 and average viewers.

CNN, which pioneered cable news, now rates dead last among cable news networks. Prime time ratings are down 68 percent since last year. Of course, much of that is due to 2008 being an election year, but CNN's fall relative to the other news networks can't be blamed on the election cycle. Can some of CNN's decline, at least, be attributed to the network's liberalism in general and its attacks on and sniggering denigrations of, normal Americans? It's hard to tell. But sniggerer-in-chief Anderson Cooper's ratings are sliding into the toilet. (The midsummer blip was Michael Jackson's death.) CNN apparently...

Most cable news ratings are going to show declines from their election year heyday last fall, but for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show (which debuted in September, 2008) those year over year declines have made October, 2009 its lowest rated month ever in both average viewers and the cable news targeted adults 25-54 demo, down 54% and 65% respectively from October, 2008

Big Brother (or in this case little brother, since TiVo only makes up about 10% of the DVRs) is watching. Several data tables below, and I scrolled right down to them. On a glace it seems that TNT’s The Closer could be the best way to unify a partisan nation. TIVO EXAMINES TV VIEWERSHIP BEHAVIOR BASED ON POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION USING ITS POWER||WATCH™ RATINGS SERVICE IN JULY Highlights how True Targets data affords advertisers a better understanding of television behavioral segments and can help significantly improve consumer targeting and ROI No Republicans watched a second of Olbermann, No potential alternative...

Even though Robi Boscarino lives a world away, the 17-year-old Australian still manages to tune into CBS' "NCIS" seven nights a week. Earlier this month, the Perth resident visited the hit crime procedural's sound stages in Valencia and caught his favorite character, DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), in action. "Back home, everybody likes him," said Boscarino, who has Hodgkin's lymphoma and whose big dream to visit the set was made possible by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. "He's one of the most popular TV actors, for sure. This is more than I expected, to be honest. I didn't expect him to be like he...

25-54 demographic: (L +SD) Total day: FNC: 415 | CNN: 119 | MSNBC: 133 | HLN: 141 Prime: FNC: 777 | CNN: 182 | MSNBC: 310 | HLN: 233 5p: 6p: 7p: 8p: 9p: 10p: 11p: FNC Beck: Baier: Shep: O'Reilly: Hannity: Greta: O'Reilly: 589 423 416 869 827 634 532 CNN Blitzer: Blitzer: Dobbs: Brown: King: Cooper: Cooper: 101 101 155 146 214 187 123 MSNBC Matthews: EdShow: Matthews: Olbermann: Maddow: Olbermann: Maddow: 91 103 170 338 348 244 178 HLN Prime: Prime: Issues: Grace: Behar: Grace: Showbiz: 119 87 175 273 190 251 223

The Web can be a mean-spirited place. But when it comes to online reviews, the Internet is a village where the books are strong, YouTube clips are good-looking and the dog food is above average. One of the Web's little secrets is that when consumers write online reviews, they tend to leave positive ratings: The average grade for things online is about 4.3 stars out of five.

October 6, 2009 Explicit Sex Returns To TV Explicit sex scenes are in vogue again on TV, with new series such as True Blood — and this time women are calling the shots Andrew Billen When was it that I realised that Percy Filth — as Jack Rosenthal’s sitcom The Lovers called sex around the time that television invented it — had made a return to the box? Was it in the early minutes of Rome four years ago when Polly Walker as the voluptuous Atia energetically turned a freeman into her sex slave? Was it two years later when...

CBS scored an across-the-board ratings triumph with its new cops & lawyers combo. The series debuts of new procedurals "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "The Good Wife" delivered impressive premiere ratings and won their hours, while returning veteran "NCIS" was the night's highest-rated show. The second day of the broadcast season was marked by an unusual quartet of two-hour blocks: Two hours of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" vs. two hours of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" vs. two hours of Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" against two hours of CBS' "NCIS" (well, "NCIS" and its spinoff). Starting off the night for CBS, the...

Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer blog noticed a development over the summer that seems to have escaped much of the news media: In a whole bunch of major radio markets -- from New York City to San Diego, with St. Louis in between -- Rush Limbaugh's listenership has surged: “As frustration with Obama's policies reached a boiling point during August, Americans clearly turned to Rush for help,” but “the state-run media has yet to take notice.” Specifically, for KFI-AM in Los Angeles, Arbitron reported Limbaugh “gained a full share point overall, from 5.9 to 6.9 to take first...

CABLE NEWS RACE THURSDAY NITE, SEPT 10 FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,609,000 FOXNEWS BECK 3,340,000 FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,986,000 FOXNEWS GRETA 2,522,000 FOXNEWS BAIER 2,362,000 FOXNEWS SHEP 2,040,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,573,000 MSNBC MADDOW 1,164,000 CNN KING 965,000 MSNBC HARDBALL 882,000 MSNBC SCHULTZ 734,000 CNN COOPER 691,000

Cable ratings + Network ratings for Obama's partisan speech on Health Care last night...

21.2 million Total Viewers watched President Obama's address to congress last night. • 8.2M watched on NBC • 7.4M watched on ABC • 5.6M watched on CBS FOX, the only broadcaster not to carry the president, drew 6.5M Total Viewers for the premiere of "So You Think You Can Dance?" during the 8pm hour. The 21 million watching the president on the Big 3 nets last night tops the 19 million who watched his primetime news conference in April but nowhere near the 31 million who watched his second primetime news conference in March.

“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable—a most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.” —Abraham Lincoln The battle lines continue to be drawn, and in this article I will discuss one that you can, and should, draw now. Glenn Beck ought to get the Medal of Freedom, and Fox News deserves America’s heart-felt gratitude. Without Fox News, and Beck in particular, we would largely be...

Although Glenn Beck's hit Fox News show doesn't even air during prime time, he is generating huge prime-time-like numbers at 5 p.m. TVbytheNumbers.com reports that, despite a liberal group's "boycott" of "The Glenn Beck Program," Beck is striking "pure ratings gold."

Overview: Barack Obama’s approval ratings have suffered major declines. The president’s overall job approval number fell from 61% in mid-June to 54% currently. His approval ratings for handling the economy and the federal budget deficit have also fallen sharply, tumbling to 38% and 32%, respectively. Majorities now say they disapprove of the way the president is handling these two issues. The new poll also finds significant declines over the last few months in the percentage of Americans giving Obama high marks for dealing with health care, foreign policy and tax policy. Three factors have likely contributed to more negative views...

President Obama received flack from all sides for his answer to a question at his healthcare press conference in which he said that the police officers involved in Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates' arrest “acted stupidly.” But who could have predicted that “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart would do a presidential put-down? “I wasn't at the press conference last night, and I also don't have all the facts, but I think it's fair to say that Obama handled that question — oh, what's the word I'm looking for — stupidly?” the Comedy Central star cracked. In light of Walter Cronkite's...

ABC's White House special struggled for viewers President Obama's town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening. The one-hour ABC News special "Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America" (4.7 million viewers, 1.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) had the fewest viewers in the 10 p.m. hour. The special tied some 8 p.m. comedy repeats as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network. The special was shot at the White House and featured the president answering questions about his health care plan. The president's primary message was that those who like their current insurance will...

For the 77th consecutive month, FNC finished first in total day and prime time ratings during May. FNC was the sixth highest rated cable network on all of basic cable during prime time for the month (CNN and MSNBC finished 19th and 26th) and the seventh rated network in total day (CNN and MSNBC were 19th and 27th). FNC also had 11 out of the top 13 programs in cable during the month in Total Viewers. The O'Reilly Factor was the #1 program in cable news for the 90th consecutive month, and saw gains in Total Viewers year-to-year (26%).

Nielsen Media Research has conceded making an error and is performing a recount after the company's ratings on Tuesday initially indicated that ABC's "World News" most likely had its smallest audience ever. The dispute with Nielsen was a downer for the network after the entertainment division—keyed by the National Basketball Association finals—won in the prime-time ratings for the first week since September. It was ABC's most-watched week in the summer in five years, according to Nielsen. ABC asked Nielsen for an investigation after its ratings showed "World News" averaged 6.2 million viewers last week (4.3 rating, 9 share), its worst...

Stephen Colbert interviews special guest Gen. Ray Odierno, commanding general of the Multi-National Force - Iraq during Monday night's episode of "The Colbert Report." Photo by Lee Craker. CAMP VICTORY, BAGHDAD — It is official - Stephen Colbert came, saw and conquered Iraq, claiming victory on day three of his six-day adventure to the Middle East. Arriving in a C-17 from Kuwait, Colbert landed at the Baghdad International Airport, June 5, and began preparing for his shows at Camp Victory's Al Faw Palace, as part of his tour "Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando." "We wanted to call it 'Feelin HOT,...

"Tonight Show" reversed its ratings decline and showed growth for the first time Wednesday night. Also, new ratings for O'Brien's first week behind the "Tonight" desk give NBC a record-setting lead over CBS' "Late Show" among adults 18-49. After seven nights of drops, NBC's "Tonight" may have found its bottom. The talk show rebounded 10% from Monday's performance, climbing to a 3.2 last night in the household ratings. That was enough to edge out David Letterman's "Late Show," which had bested O'Brien's "Tonight" in the overnights for the first time Tuesday evening. Letterman pulled a 3.1 rating, dropping slightly from...

The ratings for The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien have been slipping since he took over, which is to be expected. Possibly less expected is that while he's been dipping, Late Show With David Letterman has seen a slow increase.

Drudge Report headline: "CBS EVENING NEWS FALLS TO ALL-TIME LOW; 5,180,000 VIEWERS FOR COURIC" Ratings via Media Bistro: NBC 7,960,000 ABC 7,150,000 CBS 5,180,000* *Lowest Total Viewer delivery since NIELSEN records kept

He’s doing worse than David Gregory did in the same time slot. Which is pretty bad indeed. The 6 p.m. time slot has long bedeviled MSNBC executives. And, to date, the arrival of the popular, liberal talk show host has done little to boost the network’s numbers. In May, according to Nielsen data, The Ed Show, finished well behind CNN and Fox News at 6 p.m., averaging 510,000 total viewers and 126,000 in the 25-54 demographic—numbers, which were down 13% and 35% respectively compared with May of 2008 when David Gregory was anchoring the hour. Perhaps as a result of...

For the second straight week, 37% of likely voters say the United States is heading in the right direction. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 55% believe the nation is heading down the wrong track. That’s down from 57% last week. While both numbers have remained fairly consistent over the past few weeks, the percentage who say the nation is heading in the right direction is up 10 points from the week Barack Obama was inaugurated as President in January and up 16 points from the week he was elected in November. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Democratic...

NBC set a low-water mark of historic proportions for TV viewership last week. The network averaged 4.4 million prime-time viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. While it's not the smallest ever recorded by ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox, it's the smallest to come in a week outside of the summer doldrums of June, July, August or early September. Only once before has NBC been lower, during August 2007, Nielsen said. The company's precise records go back to the advent of "people meters" in 1987, but given how dominant broadcast networks were before then, it's likely NBC hasn't had such a...

Like an obsessed stalker, Keith Olbermann has declared he won’t stop talking about Rush Limbaugh, even though Rush has challenged MSNBC to do so for a month. Oh, and for good measure, the classy MSNBC host screamed at Rush—who was surely not watching—”F.U.!” Olbermann copped to his Rush fixation in response to the challenge to MSNBC that Limbaugh laid down on his show today not to mention him for a month–and see what happened to their ratings. View video here.

MSNBC just got destroyed last night. Tingly leg got taken behind the woodshed by Glenn Beck-wow ya. Beck has nearly 5x the audience of Pissy Chrissy.

Audience interest in Barack Obama’s news conferences seems to be falling, with Wednesday’s press event drawing the president’s smallest primetime audience since his inauguration. The telecast to mark Obama’s 100th day in office was viewed by 28.8 million people, according to Nielsen. That's a 29% drop from the president's last press conference, on March 24, and a 42% fall since his first, on Feb. 9. Ten networks carried the telecast, which is one less than last time since Fox elected to run its detective drama Lie to Me (7.8 million, 2.3 national adults 18-49 rating) instead. Airing its regular entertainment...

As the Fox News Channel continues to be berated by America's new president along with his Party and liberal media minions, the cable network keeps drawing in more and more viewers. In fact, it has been the second most-watched ad-supported cable network for nine straight weeks, and now sports the top eleven cable news programs. Adding insult to injury, TVNewser reported Tuesday that FNC is now attracting more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined: How's this for cable news domination - Fox News beat CNN and MSNBC combined in every hour from 6amET to MidnightET in both Total Viewers...

I could of course be commenting on the poor quality of the alleged journalism. But in this case I'm talking about their ratings, which is of course largely caused by said poor journalism. Three weeks ago (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that the Big 3 networks' evening newscasts' combined ratings had dropped about 17% since the collective high they achieved during the week of January 26, the first full week after Barack Obama's nomination. Make that 21%. In the 25-54 demographic, the drop has been 30%. And it's not just a seasonality thing. The collective drop compared to...

CNN is poised to finish March third in the prime-time weeknight ratings behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the first time this has ever happened for the channel that pioneered the cable news genre nearly three decades ago. CNN says its overall business is healthy and it is not straying from its straight news path. But it is suffering more audience erosion than its rivals since the peak days of the presidential election, further proof that the opinionated prime-time shows on Fox and MSNBC have greater audience loyalty. CNN's weekday prime-time ratings are relatively flat compared to last year during...

All that cheerleading for Obama-Biden, and all they got was a continuation of their lousy long-term ratings drop. Perhaps one reason why Big 3 network coverage of the 2008 presidential election was so heavy on fawning favoritism towards Barack Obama and Joe Biden combined with all-out attacks on John McCain and Sarah Palin was that the belief that an Obama presidency might revive interest in their declining evening newscasts. If so, that strategy has spectactularly failed. Nine weeks into Obama's presidency, it's clear that after a short-lived revival, the audiences for NBC's Brian Williams, ABC's Charles Gibson, and especially...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Taking to the airwaves again to pitch his economic plan, President Barack Obama drew 40 million viewers for his latest news conference, down some 9 million from his first prime-time press encounter last month. Obama's question-and-answer session with reporters at the White House on Tuesday night capped a weeklong media blitz by the president and was carried by 11 U.S. TV networks, including the Big Four broadcast outlets, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, according to Nielsen Media Research. By comparison, the first prime-time news conference of his presidency, on February 9, averaged 49.5 million viewers across...

CNN’s ratings are collapsing even faster than Tim Geithner’s reputation. The original cable news network now rests in fourth place in primetime - dead last - in the fierce fight for the coveted 25-to-54 demographic. On one recent night, they fell to fifth, trailing even CNBC. Here’s how Portfolio.com explains CNN’s sad tale:

Glenn Beck kicked butt in the ratings last week. After being on television for years, he’s an overnight success. His Fox News program soared in the ratings, passing perennial second place Sean Hannity and nearly catching long-time leader Bill O’Reilly. All three Fox hosts left the other cable news shows far, far behind. Here’s a brief snippet of an interview Beck did recently with TheDailyBeast.com:

I thought it might be interesting to see which right-of-center websites actually receive the most traffic. So, I went to Alexa.com and ranked the 50 sites on the right. Do keep in mind that... 1) Alexa doesn't distinguish between top level domains and their sub-directories. So, for example, a blog on Townhall and Townhall itself would have the same rating. Additionally, websites hosted at places like Blogspot, which list each blog on a sub-directory, can't be measured. My guess is that it only knocked 2-4 websites max off the list including Ace of Spades HQ, Gateway Pundit, & Big Hollywood....

On many issues of public concern, from food safety to the financial crisis, legislators and commentators line up on one side or the other: Either these failures prove that the free market doesn't work and that more government regulation is required, or that our regulatory structure doesn't work and that more free enterprise is required. Both positions ignore a common thread -- the failure of "guardian structures" to do their jobs properly. The question is why. It may not be obvious what unites the shipping of salmonella-laced peanut products, the issuance of mortgages without property value adequate to back them...

EXCERPT: Nothing better than quoting the bible on a Sunday morning. “Maddow’s unique style spikes ratings. Smarts, smile fuel MSNBC host’s rapid rise.” That’s how Variety, long known as the show business bible, headlines its story on MSNBC’s leftwing loon Rachel Maddow. “After struggling for years to fill the prime 9 p.m. slot — with personalities as disparate as Rita Cosby to Dan Abrams — the network has landed a solid performer in Maddow,” the story says. “Her ratings are a vast improvement over what has been there recently, and she has helped erase doubts the network could carry over...

Overall, 56% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance so far while 43% disapprove. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 39% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-one percent (31%) Strongly Disapprove to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +8

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? Total Rep Dem Ind 58 Approve 33 86 51 26 Disapprove 49 6 29 16 Don’t know 18 8 20 100 100 100 100 2. In general, government grows bigger as it provides more services. If you had to choose, would you rather have a......

Poll: Obama's rating at all-time high NBC/WSJ poll shows gap between popularity of president and his policies WASHINGTON - After Barack Obama's first six weeks as president, the American public's attitudes about the two political parties couldn't be more different, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds. Despite the country's struggling economy and vocal opposition to some of his policies, President Obama's favorability rating is at an all-time high. Two-thirds feel hopeful about his leadership and six in 10 approve of the job he's doing in the White House. "What is amazing here is how much political capital Obama...

You know Katie Couric and her CBS Evening News have some serious problems when they become the butt of sports-talk mockery . . . On his ESPN show this afternoon, the acerbic Jim Rome raked Alex Rodriguez for seeking career advice from Couric. JIM ROME: Katie Couric says that while she was trying to line up an interview with Alex Rodriguez back in ‘07, he actually asked her what she thought that he should do about his contract: quote, what team do you think I should play for? . . . Katie Couric? I mean, judging from her ratings, she...

America is tuning out the liberal Main Stream Media and turning to Fox News in droves. Fox News is leading prime time and daytime cable news ratings during February for the 86th straight month. Many Fox News shows were up over 30% compared to last February.

The Steelers-Cardinals matchup wasn't considered an ideal one for television, but its finish riveted an estimated audience of 95.4 million people, second only to last year's game as the most-watched Super Bowl. Viewership peaked in the fourth quarter, when Arizona took the lead on Larry Fitzgerald's 64-yard catch and sprint to the end zone only to have it snatched back when Santonio Holmes' end zone leap gave the Steelers the 27-23 win. More than 100 million Americans were watching between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST, according to Nielsen Media Research. The game was the third most-watched program in American...

When the most recent ratings came out, they probably popped a bottle of champagne at Fox News and toasted our new Fearless Leader. The number one news network’s ratings have soared since Obama was inaugurated. Here’s a look at the top ten cable TV shows for January 28, 2009:

OBAMA BOOM AT FOXNEWS... RATINGS SOAR... NIGHT OF 1/28/09... VIEWERS... FOXNEWS OREILLY 3,891,000 FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,034,000 FOXNEWS BECK 2,306,000 FOXNEWS SHEP 2,299,000 FOXNEWS GRETA 2,155,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,581,000 CNN COOPER 1,559,000 CNN KING 1,420,000 CNN BLITZER 1,490,000 CNNHN GRACE 1,435,000 MSNBC MADDOW 1,398,000

THE ratings used for films could be applied to websites in a bid to better police the internet and protect children from harmful and offensive material, Britain's minister for culture has said. Andy Burnham told Britain's The Daily Telegraph newspaper the government was planning to negotiate with the administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to draw up new international rules for English language websites. "The more we seek international solutions to this stuff - the UK and the U.S. working together - the more that an international norm will set an industry norm," the newspaper reports the Culture Secretary as...