THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2024
Sacred Troy overrun: Perhaps you're wondering what the nation's "cable news" ratings look like now that the year is over.
Over at Mediaite, Alex Griffing has reported the year-end numbers from Neilsen. Maybe Griffing's just kidding around, but he says these were the twelve highest-rated cable news programs over the course of the year:
Highest-rated cable news shows, 2024
1) The Five
2) Jesse Watters Primetime
3) Hannity
4) Gutfeld!
5) The Ingraham Angle
6) Special Report with Bret Baier
7) Outnumbered
8) The Faulkner Focus
9) America’s Newsroom with Perino and Hemmer
10) America Reports with Roberts and Smith
11) The Story with Martha MacCallum
12) Your World with Neil Cavuto
Those are the twelve highest-rated shows. For the record, they're all from the Fox News Channel.
At least in theory, these things come and go. That said, here/'s the somewhat gloomy start of Griffing's year-end report:
Fox News Crushes 2024 In the Cable News Ratings
As 2024 winds down, Nielsen Media Research averages for cable news ratings cement an undeniable trend for the year: Fox News’s increasing dominance as MSNBC and CNN face an uncertain future.
Fox ended the year by extending its winning streak with a consecutive ninth year at number one in both total viewers and the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic. MSNBC landed in second place with total viewers...
Fox grabbed over 55% of the total cable audience in prime time and 49% of total day viewers for the year, marking its largest audience share since 2015. In November, the network increased that share to an unprecedented 62% of the total viewership across the industry. Post-election, that number soared even higher as Fox News captured 72% of the cable news audience in prime time for the month’s second to last full week. MSNBC scored 16 percent, while CNN had 11 percent of cable news viewers during prime time.
... Nielsen found that Fox was also the most-watched network throughout the election in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Candidate Trump won the three "blue wall" states by narrow margins. Fox News was outperforming MSNBC in all three of those states. (Griffing doesn't say by how much.)
For ourselves, we look forward to dropping our endless attempt to speak about the (many) reasons why people may have decided to vote for Candidate Trump. In the new year, we look forward to seeking the most productive ways to discuss what happens on the Fox News Channel's various programs, and perhaps in the wider world of social media.
In our view, those of us in Blue America need to take a different approach. We need a new attitude. Over the course of the past few years, our cable tribunes kept trying to get the other guy locked up. However well-intentioned that approach might have been, it looks like it might not have worked.
According to Griffing's report, here's the way it went over the course of the year. We'll edit the parts about viewers in "the coveted age 25-54 demographic," though that's the group the advertisers and perhaps the bosses care about most:
Fox News ends the year with an average of 2.4 million prime time viewers, a 31% increase from last year...CNN is also up 21% in the total average for the year with 700,000 prime time viewers...MSNBC is up 5% for the year with 1.25 million average prime time viewers..
For better or worse, Fox doubled the score on MSNBC, while CNN also had viewers.
The Five is the nation's highest-rated "cable news" show! It's also an imitation of life, a parody of journalism. It's an anthropology lesson—a fascinating study in the way we people may choose to behave.
ReplyDelete"We need a new attitude."
Too late, Bob. Everyone hates our scumbag elites, and everyone feels sorry for us, retarded Democrat party loyalists.
Harris tried a "new attitude" toward media and was criticized for it. Then Trump went on Rogan and got praised. Then Taylor Swift endorsed Harris and Harris was criticized for that. That's how this game works.
DeleteYou are absolutely wrong, Bob. Fox News having the top 10 cable news shows is a mere distraction. It’s a nothingburger. It’s a way to keep the country’s eyes and minds off the real problem. The biggest threat to the body politic is not FNC. The most dire problem we face is you, brother. Just ask them…
ReplyDeleteAre you one of the pimples David talks about? It sure sounds like you are.
DeleteAnonymouse5:50pm, you triggered?
DeleteYou sound confused. It is the right wing that uses gun metaphors, not the left.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:05pm, gun metaphors didn’t kill Brian Thompson.
DeleteYes, but why do red voters use gun metaphors despite tragic killings? I doubt you have any evidence that gun metaphors decrease gun violence instead of normalizing it. You mention Brian Thompson. Do you care more about him than about those children shot in the latest school mass shooting? Why would Thompson come to your mind first, when that other shooting is arguably more horrific?
DeleteAnonymouse 8:25pm, why do you ask? Were you also glad that they were dhot?
DeleteShot
DeleteOf course not. Why would even say such a thing to anyone? I am complaining because you think it is funny to call those who disagree with you "triggered". You do this in complete ignorance of the psychological meaning of the term, using a callous and coarse reference to shooting those you disagree with. We should all be against this kind of thing -- even you. Oddly, you go around using that term against whoever displeases you.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:50pm, what I think is funny is that you see that question as to being triggered addressed to someone every day and you say nothing, That’s pretty ridiculous and funny. Now you’re pretending to be wounded over my question to you when you started this silliness by essentially asked me the same question.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:59pm, you’re trigger. You’re doubled triggered. And you love guns when they shoot the “right” people.
Who says I say nothing? I’m not “wounded” but you call this “silliness” in keeping with your inability to respect anything others care about. This is who you always are, Cecelia. This is why you are a troll.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:27pm, please. Yes, it’s silliness when you launch into an affronted spiel over gun metaphors when I use the word triggered. Spare me the phony outrage, anonymices use that term almost daily, and spare me the asinine assertion that I’m supposed to respect you for your selective and calculated chiding,
DeleteLike I said…
Delete…I don’t respect you. That wouldn’t be a new experience for you.
DeleteThere is something wrong with you.
Delete6:52 - have another drink, sot.
Delete7:53 - I know you are but what am I?
DeleteAnonymouse 8:13pm, no, there’s something wrong with launching into selective chiding lectures at the drop of a hat, let alone ignoring other “offenders” No one appreciates that. You’re a disingenuous creep, that’s what is specifically wrong with you.
Delete"... there’s something wrong with launching into selective chiding lectures at the drop of a hat,...."
DeleteYour total lack of self-awareness is astounding.
Not 8:13, are you triggered?
DeleteYou don’t know when to shut up.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:16pm, so it’s a “yes”.
DeleteAs I said, you never know when to shut up.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:24pm, that’s a loaded statement, but your aim is off.
DeleteYou are incapable of stopping when you have nothing to say, and that is weird. There is something wrong with you.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:53pm, awww… you’re such a pistol.
DeleteYou think you’re being clever but you are scum. This is why decent people despise someone like you. Death of innocent children is just a joke to you.
DeleteThis is why political differences are not strictly political. Values differ between parties and dictate choices. Someone like Cecelia would never be a Democrat because she holds different values. It is obvious in her choice of Trump and in the way she interacts with people here, and she is proud of that because she cares about different things. What she cares about is obvious in this dialog. There is no need to seek reasons beond this exhibition.
DeleteYou fatuous fakes shooting off your mouths aren’t merely triggered. You’re itchy-fingered TRIGGERED.
DeleteNo self control, you needed to stop a long time ago. This is not normal behavior. Turn off your phone and go warch TV.
DeleteFoxNews is just a pimple compared to the combination of NBC CBS ABC and PBS.
ReplyDeleteBy 2028, there may not be news divisions at any of those networks since no one believes anything they say anymore. And they lose money to boot.
DeleteI believe Fox has more viewers than those other stations combined, but I am not going to look it up just to refute David in Cal. That makes Fox a very big pimple (aren't they called zits now?).
Delete"For the 2023-24 season, World News Tonight averaged 7.72 million viewers, down 5% from a season earlier, while NBC Nightly News averaged 6.44 million, down 4%; and CBS Evening News averaged 4.65 million, down 4%."
DeleteFoxNews - Special Report with Brett Baier - 2.6 million
Is there some reason why you selected those particular shows to compare and not average viewership for all shows across the various networks? What are Gutfeld's numbers? Maybe few people on Fox watch Brett Baier because they prefer jokes with their news, which would be cherrypicking to produce your claimed result.
DeleteI was comparing viewership of news shows.
DeleteYou always do this, Dickhead. NBC, ABC, CBS are just the network, there are almost 200 network affiliates owned by the Sinclair Broadcasting Propaganda Mill, putting out the local news which takes up considerably more viewing time then the damn half hour nightly network news shows. Local news is where you get the most consistent viewership, and Mr. Sinclair has it by the throat.
DeleteWithout victimhood and bogus grievance, GOP turds like David got nothin'.
DeleteSomerby needs to start including a disclaimer on these articles, stating that he understands that cable is a small segment of the media and that liberals tend to use independent sources increasingly, as mainstream media has proven less reliable in reporting liberal issues.
ReplyDeleteMainstream media (not blue and not liberal) is not "Sacred Troy". It is failing because viewers have changed their media consumption habits, largely switching to internet sources and social media. This trend was happening even before the election and it was not anything Harris or Trump invented.
Who knows why Somerby is obsessed with political cable shows. I suspect it is his assignment by whoever pays him to write tripe here. Why does Somerby continue to be paid, even after the election was won by Trump? It is because Trump and the right wing never stop campaigning. They need the media on an ongoing basis in order to keep grifting (those watches and bibles don't sell themselves) and to keep their base engaged for the midterms and 2028. Without being in the public eye constantly, Trump would forget who he is.
I wish Somerby were more adept at media analysis because there are any number of interesting things he could be discussing. But as the children say: his blog, his topics.
"For ourselves, we look forward to dropping our endless attempt to speak about the (many) reasons why people may have decided to vote for Candidate Trump."
ReplyDeleteAnd yet he has still not told us what he thinks those reasons are. Note that he has shifted from telling us what people say and away from the real reasons why they might have voted for Trump or the real reasons existing why someone should have voted for Trump.
We surely don't need another repetition of the misinformed and deranged views of Trump voters, do we? There are endless lies people tell themselves and others justifying their callous and stupid actions on behalf of Trump. Somerby has done a piss-poor job of discussing those too.
On 12/17, David Pakman's podcast described the economic consequences of deporting any significant number of illegal immigrants. If Trump voters really wanted to see lower grocery prices, they never should have supported Trump, given his promise to deport workers on Day 1. Pakman reviewed what has happened in states where that was tried before, and the economic disaster that resulted for farmers and in construction. So, is Trump's deportation promise a valid reason to vote for Trump? Only to hard-liners who do not care about grocery prices or economic hardship for "ordinary people". Why hasn't Somerby talked about this quandary? Yes, we know he thinks Trump is crazy, but what is wrong with these red voters?
ReplyDeleteThe real question is whether voters, regardless of political affiliation, are willing to grapple with the practical consequences of their preferred policies. Voters on both sides of the political spectrum prioritize different values and are often guided by emotional, cultural, or social considerations rather than purely economic ones. (Eg. minimum wage increases). Rather than defaulting to, "What's wrong with these voters?, addressing this tension openly and in good faith, without judgment and moral condemnation, would provide a more informed discussion about this particular policy and its trade-offs and the paradoxical disconnect between values and practical outcomes in a two-party system.
DeleteSurprised that Somerby hasn't mentioned that Neil Cavuto is leaving Fox -- more appeasement of Trump by the media.
ReplyDelete"NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Going forward, ABC News will have a “zero tolerance policy for news,” the CEO of parent company Disney said at an all-hands meeting on Thursday.
ReplyDelete“In recent days, I’ve heard troubling reports of ABC News employees recklessly dabbling in news,” Bob Iger told the gathering at ABC’s Manhattan headquarters. “This ends now.”
Declaring ABC News “a news-free zone,” he said, “If you find yourself tempted to do news, I want you to ask yourself: is it worth risking your career?”
Iger’s anti-news policy, however, drew a harsh rebuke from Fox News Channel, who claimed that ABC was infringing on its brand."
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/abc-news-adopts-zero-tolerance-policy
This is why people are switching to independent news sources -- the humor is much better than Gutfeld's.
As yet another CR bill hits the trashcan with 38 Republicans voting "no," Republicans continue their pathological aversion to governance.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are incapable of governing: Part MCXXXII.
Delete