Fox News has seen better days

June 27, 2006

I noted last month that Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly’s ratings are on the decline. Apparently, it’s not just him; it’s his whole network. As Jonathan Singer noted Broadcasting & Cable, a trade publication for the TV industry, reported that [tag]Fox News[/tag]’ ratings are “dropping precipitously.”

Slackers at [tag]Fox News Channel[/tag], you’re on notice! Your boss is not pleased. Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes is on the warpath following his network’s recent [tag]ratings[/tag] slump, and he won’t hesitate to clean house to turn things around.

So far during the second quarter, the No. 1 cable news channel’s primetime schedule has dropped 22% in its core 25-54 demo and 8% in total viewers. The first quarter was even worse. […]

Insiders say that, even though Fox News remains No. 1, Ailes is fuming over the complacency he senses among staffers.

Production values are slipping, and bookers aren’t competitive enough, relying too heavily on the same pool of faces and settling for authors or actors after they’ve already been on CNN or … gasp … MSNBC.

For that matter, as Singer added, MSNBC’s [tag]Keith Olbermann[/tag] is “edging ever closer to Fox News’ big star, [tag]Bill O’Reilly[/tag], among the much-coveted 25-54 demographic.”

Consider this your morale boost for the day.

Good on ya CB. That’s a goodly boost. Now if only there could be some kind of Act of God to knock them off the air……

  • Who knows? Maybe Bill and Sean are really the evil stepchildren of Saddam…lol….

  • People aren’t buying what they are selling. To quote Nelson from The Simpsons ‘HA-Ha”.

    Yeah the problem is that thier graphics aren’t flashy enough and their guests have already been on CNN. Yeah that’s the problem.

  • I’ve got to agree with MNP. As the situation in Iraq has worsened, and more and more stories demonstrating the Bushites’ incompetence emerge, the Faux News venal ass-kissing of the SAdministration has become too much for more and more people to swallow.

    Hopefully, the Republican’ts and their pet network will remain clueless for five more months.

  • Sign me up for the MNP-mobile, too. Their ratings are dropping because they’re still using the same frothing nutbag rants that were getting old two years ago. Maybe if they start replacing their worthless “personalities” with serious journalists and investigators, with just a hint of honesty and integrity, they could start turning it around. As my old Irish grandmother used to say, “And pigs might fly someday….but I doubt it.”

    On the day that Hannity and O’Reilly get shown to the curb for falling ratings, the world will let loose such a shout of joy as hasn’t been heard since the end of WWII.

  • Isn’t this just more evidence that Fox and Bush are joined at the hip? Bush’s numbers sink, and so do Fox’s. Not such a big surprise, given the herd instinct of the viewing public, but what are they watching instead? World Cup? Days Of Our Lives? Dare I hope, Jon Stewart? You just know they aren’t getting off the couch to exercise or do something less video-intensive, so what mindless TV show holds the reins now?

  • And here’s my favorite news item from yesterday. Well, it’s sort of more gossip than news, but still…

    Fox’s “Daily Show” knockoff? Fox is reportedly making a pilot for what a source tells TVNewswer is “an absolutely terrible rip-off of ‘The Daily Show.'” To be called “Watch This Right Now,” the news spoof show is going to be hosted by conservative talk show pundit Laura Ingraham. (TVNewser)

    Just think how much fun Stewart and Colbert will have!

  • “with comments like these, the terrists have won…” – new yorker

    What exactly is a ‘terrist’? Some sort of dog that goes after rodents in holes?

    The Terrorists will not win until they live in palaces and rule the whole Muslim world. Which, considering we would be able to nuke them half way from their goal, seems very improbable.

    People keep ignoring just how hard it is for Wahabists like al Qaeda to actually achieve their goals. In Afghanistan, even at their height when the whole world was ignoring them (or inviting them to Texas to plan pipelines) they only controlled about two-thirds of the country, and about half the population had fled into exile. In Somolia, after years of neglect, an Islamic movement practicing strict Sharia law has come to power, but even they had to back down when they tried to censor the World Cup.

    It’s not easy being a Islamo-Fascist. In fact, except for us propping up the regime in Saudi Arabia, they wouldn’t have any power at all.

  • Fox’s base is tuning them out on the tube.

    Let’s hope they tune out this november too.

  • Or possibly FOX is declining because they are no longer the sole source of right-wing Kool-aid; you can get it everywhere now including CNN.

  • I still find it impossibly hard to believe that someone who referred to a loofah sponge as a tasty falafel was not shamed and laughed all the way to the cancelled bin.

    Are we really that amused by idiocy? I guess The Simple Life is all the answer I need.

  • Expect Fox News anchorwomen to start wearing bikini tops in the near future.

    That’s true Fox Attitude.

    Any “news” network that worries a Simpsons lampoon would confuse its audience has no credibility.

  • I don’t know how anyone can watch Fox News, but many do. I agree that the mood of the country is swinging away from the right. The recent Supreme Court decisions with Roberts and Allito weighing in should sober quite a few fence sitters. I think people are beginning to see what is going on.

    Also the insane and patronizing coverage of the war in Iraq found on the Networks, especially FOX but including CNN and MSNBC, has made even the most trusting among us a bit cynical. I try not to overestimate the voters, but I am hoping for some change in November. I live in the SF Bay Area, so I am insulated from the true right wing, and based on my community, I am often surprised by national election results. I doubt that FOX wins any ratings battle in my part of the country.

  • I agree with others that a probable cause is that televised media has gone all right wing all the time. You can’t get away from right wing pandering and Dem bashing just about no matter where you go.

    But I wonder if another part of the equation is that the same thing that happened to gangsta rap is happening to right wing news. After a while nothing is outrageous any more. They’ve pulled so many stunts and said so many crazy things that unless the are so over the top a la Coulter you don’t even notice anymore. People don’t reat to news anymore, they react to edginess. Fox is losing its edginess.

  • Lance, doesn’t ‘terrist’ sound a lot like ‘Merkin’ or ‘nukular’?

    Be afraid. Be very afraid. 😉

  • “Lance, doesn’t ‘terrist’ sound a lot like ‘Merkin’ or ‘nukular’?” – Curmudgeon

    Are you trying to suggest that when Boy George II tells his handlers that he is going to take a nap he is really sneaking off to the internet to comment on the best liberal blog in the world?

    I can just imagine the poor English teacher in third grade telling him “Just spell it like it sounds, George”. 😉

  • FOX IS PURE PROPAGANDA!LOOK AT MURDOCH HE IS A GLOBALIST JUST LIKE BUSH.THEY BOTH WANT TO DISSOLVE OUR BORDERS AND OUR COUNTRY INTO THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION.IT IS ALL RIGHT ON THE GOVT’S WEBSITE.SO OF COARSE THEY ARE NOT GOING TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH EVERYTHING IS TO SUPPORT THIS ADMINISTRATION AND ITS AGENDA.
    A NEW WORLD ORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Fox is too left wing, e.g. Colmes. The Bush bashing is getting old. When he acts conservative, his ratings go up, when he spews liberal mush, his ratings go down e.g. immigration.You left wing fools also ridiculed and lied about Reagan.
    Please tell me of a successful liberal gov’t program. Fails every time.

    Small government Ed

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