Fox News’ ratings take another slide

January 30, 2008

I’ll admit it; I have a special fondness for news about Fox News’ declining ratings. There’s just something about the drop in numbers that helps restore my faith in the American political system.

Eric Boehlert has the latest, in a great piece on why the Republican network is poised to have a very rough year.

The point is that Fox News years ago made an obvious decision to appeal almost exclusively to Republican viewers. The good news then for Fox News was that it succeeded. The bad news now for Fox News is that it succeeded.

Meaning, when the GOP catches a cold, everybody at Fox News gets sick. As blogger Logan Murphy put it at Crooks and Liars, “Watching FOXNews getting their comeuppance has been fun to watch. They made their bed, now they’re having to lie in it and it’s not too comfortable.”

The most obvious signs of Fox News’ downturn have been the cable ratings for the big primary and caucus votes this year, as well as the high-profile debates. With this election season generating unprecedented voter and viewer interest, Fox News’ rating bumps to date have remained underwhelming, to say the least.

In 2004, on the night of the New Hampshire primary, for example, Fox News beat CNN by 200,000 viewers, despite the fact that there was no Republican contest at the time. Four years later, CNN beat Fox News by 250,000 viewers, despite very competitive contests in both parties. (On Saturday night, when results of the Dems’ South Carolina primary were dominating the news, Fox News came in third, behind both CNN and MSNBC.)

It’s been like this throughout the primary process, and Boehlert notes that the netroots-driven boycott has had a lot to do with it.

The problem for Fox News is that it’s the Democratic race that’s creating most of the excitement, yet Fox News has been forced to mostly watch the race from the sidelines. That’s because last winter, after Fox News tried to smear Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for purportedly attending a radical Muslim school as a child, liberal bloggers launched an initiative to get Democratic candidates to boycott a debate co-sponsored by Fox News and the Nevada Democratic Party. (The boycott, powered by Foxattacks.com, was later extended to any and all Fox News debates.)

The point of the online crusade was not to simply embarrass Fox News or rattle Nevada Democrats for being out of touch with the grassroots masses that distrusted and despised Fox News. The point, instead, was to begin chipping away, in a serious, consistent method, at Fox News’ reputation. To spell out that Fox News was nothing more than a Republican mouthpiece and that Democrats need not engage with the News Corp. giant.

The lack of Democratic debates for Fox News has meant a huge setback for the news organization from a ratings perspective. Just look at the grand slam CNN hit last week when, on January 21, it broadcast the much-talked-about Democratic debate from South Carolina. The CNN event not only creamed Fox News in the ratings, nearly tripling its audience that night, but the debate set a new cable news mark for the most viewers ever to watch a primary debate.

In fact, of the 10 most-watched debates this election season, Fox has aired just two, compared to CNN’s five.

If I’m not mistaken, this also suggests MSNBC has had three of the 10 most-watched debates, which is one more than Fox. (Also, this is likely to continue, given that the debates scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night — the last two events before Feb. 5 — are both on CNN.)

CNN President Jonathan Klein, following its New Hampshire ratings win, said, “There’s a freshness and exuberance to our coverage that the others just aren’t matching…. Fox almost seems downright despondent in their coverage.”

It couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate network.

Could this be a reflection of CNN moving to the Right and picking off viewers?

  • Wasn’t the spin on this about Dems being afraid or something? At the time, I kept saying that no, finally WE were the tough guys fighting back.

    In your face, CW.

  • Keith Olberman makes MSNBC my favorite network, but if MSNBC would dump Tweety and they might be the most watched. He is so phony that I have a hard time watching him and have to switch to CNN. FOX is beyond phony though; it is downright corrupt, and I am glad they lose again.

  • As an aside, it’s also worth noting that “the flagrantly blah” network is also suffering from a severe case of Ghoul Syndrome. They put all their eggs in a basket that turned out to be a rectal cavity—and no one wants to be their “proctologist….”

  • Chrisbo @ 1 is dead on. And isn’t it a bit sad that people are left with nothing better than “I got a blog, too” Blitzer, and one-trick-pony Dobson. Does Larry King even know where he is anymore?

  • Good point Steve.Given the Fox track record selling Bush-Cheney for the last 8 yrs even the most brain dead Fox viewers had to ask themselves….Uh gee,I should support a gun shunnin’,abortion lovin’,wife dumpin’,911 pumpin’,cousin humpin’ prick?

  • Perhaps Eric Boehlert missed this:

    Fox News Channel Top Cable News Network, No. 4 Overall Cable Network in Primetime
    1/29/2008 5:09:00 PM
    http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6526945.html?rssid=193

    Fox News Channel finished January as the most watched cable news network, jumping to the fourth-most-watched cable network in primetime.

    In total day, Fox News averaged 944,000 viewers compared with CNN’s 609,000.

    In primetime, Fox News averaged 1.73 million viewers (426,000) versus CNN’s 1.14 million (400,000).

    Buoyed by record debate ratings, CNN posted a 41% jump in its primetime viewer average and was up 54 % in the demo compared with January 2007. Fox News increased its total viewer average by 8% and was up 10% in the demo.

    Boehlert seems to be focusing on the debate ratings…

  • CNN is almost as bad as Fox–not quite as exploitive, marginally less insulting to one’s intelligence with fewer sparkly graphics and WHOOSH!!! sound effects. (Maybe Fox needs them to wake up their elderly viewers?)

    MSNBC is the only one I ever bother with. Even their righties, like Scarborough, are fairly entertaining. If it weren’t for the endlessly inane Matthews, they’d be borderline-enjoyable.

  • Seaberry — Boehlert points out there is always a bump with the debates, but that their’s is a blip compared to CNN. That stat you show bears that out, with CNN getting a 41% jump, and FOX 8%.

    You’re trying to say the Toy store didn’t take a hit because there was a marginal rise approaching Christmas.

  • However, if a Democrat wins the Whitehouse and Bush is finally gone that will help Fox’s ratings because Republicans will be re-invigorated and conflict sells.

    I’d be gald to see them swept into the dustbin of history but the only thing that will change Murdock is money.

  • CNN isn’t having a jump because of their low-rated wingers, who never seem to get their shows cancelled based on any number crunching, but due to a rise in viewership of folks following the election who don’t trust FOX.

    The jump isn’t in Glenn Beck or immigrant bashing.

  • ABC the network broadcast a Dem. and GOP debate, so I wouldn’t automatically assume that MSNBC has the rest of the top 10.

  • CNN and Fox are on most basic cable packages. You have to pay more to get MSNBC. How do they compare ratings when this is the case?

  • Fox Propaganda’s low ratings are partly my fault – I never watch them. But don’t blame any decline on me – I never did watch them.

    In my opinion, Fox doesn’t care about increasing its ratings, only about keeping the viewers they already have. They have identified a niche market (Limbaugh dittoheads and the like) who hang on their every word and believe their advertisers.

    A gullible demographic is a profitable demographic. Who needs credibility?

  • Unfortunately, if Hillary and a strengthened Democratic congress take office next year, that will only invigorate the haters on the right, talk radio/Fox, etc. It will be 1993-94 all over again. And so the cycle continues.

  • It isn’t just that FOX went for the GOP, they went for the basest of the base. Not every Republican voter/viewer is a hate spewing bigot and/or a brain-dead idiot. Some Republicans actually want news when they listen to the news not catapulted propoganda hot from Karl Rove’s pen.

  • Fox News ratings are dropping because they are not even covering the GOP primary fairly. Like the rest of the media, they are slanting heavily towards McCain, the most liberal of the Republican candidates.

  • All evidence I have seen is that Giuliani was Fox News’ favorite candidate. The conservative talk show hosts and bloggers in general seem to hate McCain, I find it very hard to believe Fox News is really slanting heavily towards him.

  • It was the nature of the beast, their whole niche was feigned outrage.
    For that to be effective, the outrage has to build and at some point the outrage started targeting items that left even the most devote Fox shaking their head.
    Christmas trees and homeless vets come to mind.

  • the only thing that will change Murdock is money.

    I believe that death will slow him down a bit. And sometime soon, inshallah.
    I know that he’s richer than God, and so can afford the very best health care and prosthetics, but the man is nearing 80 years old.

    Unfortunately, Ailes is not yet 70.

  • Seaberry, what is it about Fox viewers (and hosts..aka Bill-O) who believe that their ratings figures prove how good they are?

    Do you know anyone who actually believes the “top 40” radio stations in America play anything good, much less THE TOP songs out there? Do you know anyone who actually believes the top 10 movies are really THE BEST films out there?

    So what possible point do you think you prove by showing ratings numbers that put Fox on top?

  • Here’s a little “trick” that bumps FOX “viewership:”

    Not far from where I live, there’s a “discount” grocery—we’ll call them “M” for short. I place quotations around the word “emphasis” because just about everything they have on their shelves is either off-brand (that doesn’t sell anywhere else) or buy-outs from other stores. In some instances, they’ll even charge more for some items than either of the high-end grocers in the area.

    Sadly, the people who patronize “M” the most are the ones who can least afford paying an exorbitant price for their groceries.

    Now, “M” has this novel little concept. There are televisions mounted overhead, right at the cashier lines. Those televisions are only turned on at the lines that are operating—and every last one of those televisions is set to the FOX News Channel.

    I’ve seen a few other “discount” stores in Northeast Ohio that are set up the same way; stores that cater primarily to the lower end of the income scale, and they all have overhead television monitors at the cash register lines.

    All, oddly enough, set to FOX. Not the Fox Television Network—the FOX News Network.

    A few of these stores do not impress me as being dedicated to the expense of buying a dozen television sets with the hardware required—plus the monthly cost of satellite service—given than they can’t even keep the place clean and in good working order, let alone keeping their shelves neatly stocked. I’d almost be willing to wager that they’re getting “help” in the costs of promoting FOX—and that their “sales count” is mysteriously showing up in the FOX News viewership numbers….

  • By the way, please replace the word “emphasis” in line 2 with “discount.” The sentence should read, thus:

    ***I place quotations around the word “discount” as emphasis, because just about everything….***

  • Fox watchers are largely conservatives so why would they be interested in watching a Democratic primary for South Carolina, especially on what they perceive as liberally biased MSNBC and CNN?

    This is just another meaningless figure for anybody with half a brain.

  • Fox watchers are largely conservatives so why would they be interested in watching a Democratic primary for South Carolina, especially on what they perceive as liberally biased MSNBC and CNN?

    This is just another meaningless figure for anybody with half a brain.

  • I think it’s hilarious how the far-left libs are having internet blog parades about this Fox News stuff….CNN and PMSNBC are getting more viewership during the Lib Debates because that’s who they’re trying to attract…Did anyone happen to catch the post primary coverage the other night with Matthews and Scarborough? Talk about conspiracy nutt-jobs!!

  • Fox News ratings slide? hmmm, sounds like a lie to me:

    Below, the 20 top ranked shows for January 2008, according to Nielsen Media Research:

    1. The O’Reilly Factor (Fox)
    2. Hannity & Colmes (Fox)
    3. The Fox Report with Shep Smith (Fox)
    4. Special Report with Brit Hume (Fox)
    5. On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (Fox)
    6. Americas Newsroom (Fox)
    7. The O’Reilly Factor (Repeat) (Fox)
    8. Larry King Live (CNN)
    9. The Big Story with John Gibson (Fox)
    10. Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN)
    11. Studio B with Shep Smith (Fox)
    12. Your World with Neil Cavuto (Fox)
    13. Happening Now (Fox)
    14. Fox And Friends (Fox)
    15. Live Desk with Martha MacCallum (Fox)
    16. Americas Pulse (Fox)
    17. Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
    18, Out In The Open (CNN)
    19. Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC)
    20. CNN Election Center (CNN)

  • Every morning I switch between Fox/Msnbc/CNN it takes about a half hour and I have all the news I need for the day. Occationally in the eveings I watch Fox and Msnbc. The only show I cannot watch is Obermann who I personally find disgusting “Confirmed liar and not funny though he tries”. For those of you who do not like Fox, you probably don’t watch Fox. Besides being annoying at times (people talking over each other) I find the subjects well balanced. I also think Msnbc is pretty well balanced. Don’t confuse personalities with biases with what’s being said…you have to listen!
    I really don’t care about ratings as long as they all remain on the air.

  • Hey 33.. so you can stomach O-Lielly but you can’t handle Olbermann? Well, that makes one of us!

  • We all watch FoxNews for the sensationalism, be honest. We hope to see O’Reilly explode and humiliate himself or get caught messing with a pornstar. Watching Hannity is like watching a NASCAR race, no fun without the wrecks. Every show has it’s shiny lipped bimbo with cleavage and big hair reading a story about Michael Jackson or some other Hollywood loser “celebrity.” They don’t actually have much news. They have no one as boring and informative as Larry King. Nor do they have anyone as transparently pretentious as Oldermann. So there!

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