{"id":362,"date":"2007-02-28T04:54:36","date_gmt":"2007-02-28T11:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=362"},"modified":"2007-02-28T20:31:59","modified_gmt":"2007-03-01T03:31:59","slug":"the-oreilly-fracture-ratings-bad-to-the-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=362","title":{"rendered":"The O’Reilly Fracture: Ratings Bad To The Bone"},"content":{"rendered":"



\nBill O’Reilly just got some more bad news<\/a> (pdf). His hairline isn’t the only thing that’s receding. The February ratings show that he has the slowest growing program (11%) of all the cable news primetime programs in the 25-54 demographic. And he is clearly bringing down the Fox network because the same is true for their whole primetime block. This despite the fact that Greta Van Susteren had the 2nd highest growth (49%) after Keith Olbermann’s Countdown (61%).<\/p>\n

It’s revealing to look at the trend over the past year. The chart below shows the Factor’s percent growth\/loss year over year for each of the last five ratings periods. And just for fun, let’s throw in a comparison to Countdown for the same stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nFeb 07<\/td>\nNov 06<\/td>\nJul 06<\/td>\nMay 06<\/td>\nFeb 06<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n2+<\/td>\n25-54<\/td>\n2+<\/td>\n25-54<\/td>\n2+<\/td>\n25-54<\/td>\n2+<\/td>\n25-54<\/td>\n2+<\/td>\n25-54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Factor <\/td>\n11<\/td>\n17<\/td>\n-18<\/font><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n-9<\/font><\/td>\n-6<\/font><\/td>\n1<\/td>\n-10<\/font><\/td>\n-7<\/font><\/td>\n-21<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Countdown <\/td>\n78<\/td>\n61<\/td>\n54<\/td>\n76<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n39<\/td>\n31<\/td>\n34<\/td>\n38<\/td>\n55<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

It can’t be making O’Reilly very comfortable knowing that four of the past five sweeps he has been losing viewers while Keith has been packing them in.<\/p>\n

Fox itself must be feeling a little queasy. In the past few weeks they have been making some pretty desperate programming moves. Starting with the dorm room bull sessions of “Red Eye”<\/em>, Fox takes a stab at attracting an audience that has yet to discover the joys of Depends. Then this past weekend they broadcast “Reel Politics,”<\/em> a supposedly humorous look at Hollywood, cementing their reputation as purveyors of comedy (If they think Hollywood would run Washington into the ground, just wait till you see<\/a> what politicians would do to Tinseltown). Also in that vein was their chronicle of Internet life, “It’s Out There,”<\/em> a program aiming for the modernity of the 21st century with art direction from “My Favorite Martian.”<\/em> At least they staffed it with a couple of babes from their sinking O’Reilly franchise, psuedo-Democrat Kirsten Powers and the noxious Michelle Malkin. Too bad neither of them could muster up the charisma of a banana slug. But the real programming genius was the embarrassingly cheesy, laugh track challenged “1\/2 Hour News Hour.”<\/em> If they had not told me in the title that the program is a half hour long I might have been confused. But in fact, it only seems<\/em> like an hour.<\/p>\n

This new direction for Fox must be roiling the Comedy Central nervous system. If they don’t act precipitously, they may find their territory invaded and occupied by the network that helped<\/a> Bush to do the same thing to Iraq. I would advise CC to respond by hitting Fox hard where they are most vulnerable – right in the journalism. The obvious move would be to immediately launch an evening newscast. That would be a frontal assualt that Fox would neither expect nor be able to counter. Because even Comedy Central has more experience in news than Fox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill O’Reilly just got some more bad news (pdf). His hairline isn’t the only thing that’s receding. The February ratings show that he has the slowest growing program (11%) of all the cable news primetime programs in the 25-54 demographic. And he is clearly bringing down the Fox network because the same is true for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-ratings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-5Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":352,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=352","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":0},"title":"Olbermann Re-ups At MSNBC With New NBC Gig","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/15\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Keith Olbermann has built Countdown into the fastest growing cable news program. He is the most watched MSNBC primetime personality and his show is driving the network's ratings surge. Now MSNBC is announcing that Olbermann's contract has been renewed for four more years. More significantly, he is being given new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4564,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4564","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":1},"title":"May Cable News Ratings: Fox News Gets Stomped","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/1\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ratings for cable news for the month of May 2011, bring bad news for Fox News. In the key demographic group of 25-54 year-olds, Fox was alone in declining during the primetime hours. This was a really bad month for Fox News which lost viewers in the demo for every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1121,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1121","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":2},"title":"And The Winner Is … Keith Olbermann’s Countdown","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/4\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been a long campaign, but the tally is finally in. Last week Keith Olbermann's Countdown beat the O'Reilly Factor every day in the key 25-54 audience demographic. Here is the five day average for the primetime cable news programs: ProgramViewers Countdown1180 Rachel Maddow1063 O'Reilly Factor1020 Hannity & Not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":196,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=196","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":3},"title":"Fox News Sinks Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/1\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In the July ratings for the cable news networks, Fox continues its steady year-over-year decline. This July's book includes reporting on the Israel\/Lebanon conflict. Breaking news events like this spike ratings for news programs. So when comparing this year's July book with last year's, it is important to note that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":453,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=453","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":4},"title":"MSNBC Growing Faster Than Fox, CNN","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/31\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The all-important May ratings (PDF) period has produced what is becoming a predictably recurrent theme: MSNBC is growing faster than any of its cable news rivals. Primetime M-F CNN FOX HLN MSNBC Persons 2+ -13% -2% +14% +51% Persons 25-54 +8% +14 +22 +40% Total Day CNN FOX HLN MSNBC\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":501,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=501","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":5},"title":"Another Runaway Quarter For MSNBC","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/4\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2nd quarter of 2007 (PDF) has delivered another in a string of victories for MSNBC. The network's growth of 50% over its 2006 performance far outshines CNN (4%) and Fox (5%). The chart below tells the story for the past four quarters. 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