The biggest loser on the network was Bill O’Reilly who saw his program The O’Reilly Factor lose 12% of its total viewers and 21% of its young viewers. Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bret Baier, and Greta Van Susteren rounded out the top five cable news shows, and they each posted double digit declines.
My initial thought was “people are just sick of ‘The News’” but uff-da these numbers hurt, and are specific:
Fox News is now averaging 1.831 million prime time viewers a day, and only 443,000 viewers age 25-54.
[…]
While Glenn Beck suffered double digit losses at 5PM, Chris Matthews posted modest gains of 1% overall and 8% in the demo. While Bret Baier declined, Ed Schultz has seen his viewership skyrocket at 6 PM. The Ed Show is up 24% over last year in total viewers and 8% in the demo. Keith Olbermann’s Countdown was down over last year by 6% in total viewers and 19% in the demo, but Olbermann’s was the only cable news show to gain audience since the second quarter. Rachel Maddow gained 6% in total views, but lost 1% with the demo.
Now, obviously, some of that is that msnbc has more room to grow (an odd converse to the situation The Democrat faces in the Congress, actually)…but still. The line item that’s got to shiver the timbers of one Rupert Murdoch (who, far from being any sort of true believer, simply puts up with whatever the message is so long as it makes a nice bottom line) is that demo analysis…only ~25% of your viewership is under 55? That’s what you’re selling to advertisers? Sweet Jesus, Mary, and Joseph I may yet live to see the end of that particular brand of “discourse”…
Fox has lost 21% of their total viewers, and 26% of their younger viewers.
Lemkin 