MSNBC’s Victory Lap…
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tim Cuprisin and the LA Times’ Matea Gold both write about Countdown’s demo victory over Paula Zahn Now…
Interestingly, Olbermann’s growth (he’s up 41% in the demographic) comes in the middle of a campaign regularly ripping O’Reilly.
With MSNBC’s ratings up, that means he’s likely to continue the offensive.
The MSNBC show drew an average of 164,000 viewers in that demographic to CNN’s 156,000, as Olbermann, who has been engaged in a colorful feud with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, enjoyed an increase of 25% in total viewers compared with this point last year.
Why do people continue to characterize this as a “feud”? Olbermann attacks 70+ times; O’Reilly counters MAYBE 3 times, and even then won’t mention Olbermann by name.
A feud requires that both parties “get into it”. The phenomenon as written about by the MSM is actually Olbermann’s obsession with O’Reilly. But it is NOT a feud.
Comment by Missy — March 29, 2006 @ 10:52 am
I agree with Missy 100%. OR is wise enough not to comment every night about something KO says lest OR looks like a big baby. How MSNBC can brag about these ratings is beyond me anyway. Beating Paula Zahn is no big deal.
Comment by sophia — March 29, 2006 @ 11:37 am
A feud requires that both parties “get into it”.
O’Reilly has gotten “into it”. The fact that he hasn’t responded the number of times Olbermann has is irrelevent. Once O’Reilly responded more than once, it became a feud…
Beating Paula Zahn is no big deal.
That’s really rich. For weeks I’ve been reading comments from people who don’t normally comment on Olbermann’s show, not just on ICN but elsewhere, who just loved to point out that Olbermann was beating Zahn in the Demo and Hardball was nipping at The Situation Room’s heels in the Demo in order to stick it to CNN. Now that the news is out officially that Olbermann beat Zahn in the Demo and people are (rightly or wrongly) crediting his feud with O’Reilly as one of the reasons, all of sudden Countdown’s Demo win over a CNN show is now no big deal? Give me a break. You can’t have it both ways. Well you can, but you lose all credibility doing so…
Comment by Spud — March 29, 2006 @ 11:51 am
Huh, I don’t get your point Spud, 1st has Missy or Sophia ever said that because they are the 2 you are ranting about? I know I don’t even care about CNN or MSNBC as they are like Arena Football compared to FNC which is the NFL. Not even in the same league. Hahaha. Then by seeing the numbers what’s his face only beat what’s her face by 8000. That’s still not a beig deal, they’re still bottomfeeders.
Comment by Lurker — March 29, 2006 @ 12:13 pm
Spud, the only person losing credibility here is you. The fact is that MSNBC is taking a “victory lap” because Countdown finished THIRD in the 25-54 demo during a quarter which included the Winter Olympics. To everyone outside MSNBC, this is a laughable P.R. spin-move, as no network in its right mind is usually this desperate. But your site, like TVNewser, eagerly promotes Keith Olbermann and his radical views.
Olbermann was pummelled by O’Reilly and lost to Nancy Grace, who’s been on the air almost three years less than him. All indications are that Zahn will again overtake him next quarter (she beat him in the demo last Thursday and crushed him in total viewers Monday night) since MSNBC doesn’t have the Winter Olympics this time around.
We’re not even scratching the surface as to why Olbermann’s pseudo-”news” program is the laughingstock of the industry, but the ratings speak for themselves. It’s just sad that O’Reilly and Grace have the guts to brand their shows as opinion programs, and Olbermann continues to claim he anchors a news program, which just happens to bash one side of the aisle and not the other. Zahn’s is the only news program out of the four.
The way you and TVNewser framed Olbermann finishing third proves shows that both your sites are simply bigger versions of MSNBC press releases. You’re not fooling anyone.
Comment by Ben — March 29, 2006 @ 2:13 pm
“Zahn’s is the only news program out of the four.”
LOL Zahn is NOT news…have you ever watched her program? It’s full of more fluff than my new down pillow…
Comment by Anonymous — March 29, 2006 @ 3:17 pm
Huh, I don’t get your point Spud, 1st has Missy or Sophia ever said that because they are the 2 you are ranting about
No I was referring to the rash of comments I had to delete yesterday.
The fact is that MSNBC is taking a “victory lap” because Countdown finished THIRD in the 25-54 demo during a quarter which included the Winter Olympics.
Oh I agree it looks ridiculous. MSNBC has a history of making mountains out of PR molehills. And I really want to see what happens next month. But at the same time it’s not ridiculous because it means a CNN show lost to an MSNBC show, which no matter how you want to parse it, looks bad.
To everyone outside MSNBC, this is a laughable P.R. spin-move, as no network in its right mind is usually this desperate.
Apparently not to CNN which turned its PR guns on MSNBC this quarter instead of FNC (like usuallly happens) when it did its ratings releases. It specifically singled out Hardball, which had been gaining on The Situation Room, for a comparison graph. Coincidence? I think not.
Comment by Spud — March 29, 2006 @ 4:19 pm
Great great post Spud for pointing out the hypocrisy of the Olbermann-bashers who still can’t deal with JUST ONE cable news and/or talk show where the host does not share their right-of-center (or far right in most cases) viewpoints. If he and MSNBC are irrelevant, then the ratings increases shouldn’t matter, but then that would mean that CNN IS relevant, and of course the same people have been claiming the opposite for years. And if MSNBC as a network is totally irrelevant, then that would mean all of their other prime time hosts, who could EASILY fit on FOX must be worthless too.
Zahn and Grace beat Countdown in overall ratings Monday? So what? Olbermann’s 25-54 were better than anyone’s at MSNBC, better than Grace, who had 200,000 more overall, and only 60,000 less than Zahn, who had 300,000 more overall (”crushing” him). Those numbers are fairly incredible for the cable news world, which skews VERY OLD. And Countdown has been beating Zahn and Grace fairly regularly in the quarter, covering REAL NATIONAL NEWS in the first half-hour, rather than tabloid subjects such as missing women, dead ministers and child molesters. (I’m sure Nancy got HUGE ratings for her Tuesday hour with the Schindlers in which she uncritically accepted every word in their book, and only had guests who supported them). If Countdown is “pseudo-news”, that would make virtually every other cable news show ENTERTAINMENT.
No, as much as these people go on and on every day about the “real” story behind the ratings, they just cannot take ANYONE challenging their view of the world, and getting (some)positive publicity for doing so.
Comment by museglet — March 29, 2006 @ 5:57 pm
KO is not stupid. He knows the O’rielly fans are gonna watch his program to see him rip BO.
Comment by Me — March 29, 2006 @ 6:05 pm
museglet = classic example of a radical left-wing nut. Look at how much time he/she spent typing all that garbage out trying to convince people what’s his face matters. BTW I didn’t even read that junk, I know exactly what you wrote, the same left-wing loon talking points.
Comment by Lurker — March 29, 2006 @ 6:28 pm
The name-calling makes my point far better than I could have imagined…..Thanks!
Comment by museglet — March 29, 2006 @ 6:52 pm
Doesn’t it, though? Even Spud is beginning to see what is going on here…the right-wingers are so insecure that now that they are losing even the slightest bit of grip on their constant claims that ratings might makes right when it comes to Olbermann, they can’t handle it. All they can do is plug their ears and sing “la la la I can’t hear you…”
Comment by tanne — March 29, 2006 @ 9:46 pm
tanne = another radical left-wing nut. No one gives a damn about what’s his face. Just go browse through all these Olbermann stories and you’ll see it’s mostly you guys responding. Hahahaha
This is what museglet wrote in one
” Wow, I WONDERED what happened to all the KO-bashing comments–sounds like it might just be one “obsessed” O’Reilly fanatic?
Comment by museglet — March 29, 2006 @ 2:18 am ”
Hahahahaha You see what I mean no one is responding back but you Kool Aid drinkers
Comment by Lurker — March 30, 2006 @ 9:43 am
Wow…yet ANOTHER “radical left-wing nut” on here–sounds like they’re taking over. Thanks Mr. O’Reilly for moving your routine to ICN!
As for the previous highlighted comment (which I guess you spent the day looking for), as your mentor BOR is known for, it was of course taken out of context: Spud had removed all of the troll comments from people like you, and so the thread was left with my comment responding to no one. Irony of course would not be something you would comprehend.
Comment by museglet — March 30, 2006 @ 2:00 pm
Yeah, museglet. Isn’t it funny how the Olbermann-bashing comments on this site went WAY down in quantity after Spud started weeding out all the idiots who decided to post under different names to make it look as if there are more of them than there really are? Gee, wonder why they felt they had to do that…and you don’t suppose the real reason O’Reilly has such higher ratings than Olbermann is because his fans all have about six Nielsen meters apiece in their houses…naah, couldn’t be! But it makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Comment by tanne — March 31, 2006 @ 7:16 am