The MSNBC/CNN Primetime Demo war
Here is a chart showing the Demo gap between MSNBC and CNN in Primetime. MSNBC has cut the gap nearly in half over the past year, though it did widen a bit recently.
May 31, 2006
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There’s not really much to say. CNN continues to beat MSNBC across the board. And by the way, if you think we’re falling for TVNewser’s MSNBC-driven “the demo is all that matters” propaganda, you’re mistaken.
Comment by benllv — May 31, 2006 @ 6:21 pm
Benllv, if you think I’M falling for your TVNewser dislike-driven propaganda, you’re mistaken.
You can go on saying “the demo doesn’t matter, overall viewership is all that matters” until you’re blue in tha face…just don’t get a job in cable TV ad sales, is all. Because apparently they do not agree with you.
Comment by tanne — May 31, 2006 @ 7:31 pm
You’re both wrong. The demo doesn’t matter; and overall viewership doesn’t matter either. What matters is what network executives think. And the numbers they consider important are not always the ones they should consider important. And the bigwigs at MSNBC, and Fox, and CNN may, and probably are, all be looking at different things from different perspectives. And history shows that the bigwigs screw up all the time - most notably in the late sixties when they pulled the plug on “Gilligan’s Island.” And in the cable news world, many of us believe canceling “Phil Donahue” and “Crossfire” were two huge recent mistakes.
Comment by erljr — May 31, 2006 @ 9:58 pm
LOL, benllv is always good for a laugh once in awhile. The ONLY thing advertisers AND THEREFORE networks care about is the demos. Period. Believe what you want, hold your breath and stamp your feet too and it still won’t change anything. As much as it hurts you, it doesn’t matter if O’Reilly had 10 million viewers a night if only the same 300,000 were younger than 54 (or 64). But I’m sure Brian at TV Newser and Olbermann are staying up nights to plot against the warlords in middle earth. Or is it outer space?
Comment by museglet — June 1, 2006 @ 3:16 am
Oh, museglet, didn’t you know? Of course Brian and Keith are in cahoots! Keith has Brian’s number on speed dial, and why? Because Brian is THE most influential voice in cable news, and everyone believes what he has to say. He is the EF Hutton of cable news: when he talks, people listen! So of course controlling him is all part of the evil Keith Olbermann plan to take over the universe.
And if you believe that, I have swampland in Arizona to sell you.
Comment by tanne — June 1, 2006 @ 7:05 am
I think if you’re looking long-term, as Fox has done from the beginning, you look at total viewers more; and if you’re looking for a quick buck, you look at the demo. Demo viewers tend to channel surf when the commercials come; that’s why many shows make the first segment the longest, and/or make the first commercial break a quick 60 seconds (Fox Report).
Anyone else notice Scarborough Country got rid of their opening graphics and music? They finally figured out people were surfing; and often finding something more interesting. The opening description of what Scarborough Country meant was well done, but after a couple years of watching the same 20 seconds, it got old.
The economics of this are explained very well at Journalism.org: http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2006/narrative_cabletv_economics.asp?cat=4&media=6
Even five years after Fox topped CNN in the ratings, CNN still makes more money than Fox. And CNN still has more hits and more viewers than Fox. People just watch CNN for shorter periods of time. That’s why Anderson Cooper’s show repeats stories sometimes three or four times in his two hours. The problem for CNN is that those short time viewers generally start the channel surfing when the commercial break starts; and thus they don’t see the commercials.
Now advertisers do understand this. The networks send out the press releases that make them look good. But the proof is in the pudding. One month of statistics really mean very little. And averages also mean very little. The statistic to use is the yearly MEDIAN.
Among other things, 2003 had the onset of the war in Iraq; 2004 had the election; 2005 had the pope dying, Katrina, and Rita. What if 2006 has no big stories? Will the low AVERAGE ratings mean the news networks are all failing? I don’t think so. I just wish ICN or TVN would publish the median stats. You get them once a year at Journalism.org, but I haven’t been able to find monthly, weekly, or daily ones anywhere.
Now where MSNBC stands with all of this, I don’t know. It does appear they are growing their audience. My take on it is this:
People tune in to CNN to see the news; and people tune in to FNC and MSNBC to see Bill O’Reilly, Chris Mathews, Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough, Greta Van Susteren, Hannity and Colmes, and others. Now CNN does have exceptions: Larry King, and more recently, Lou Dobbs. But we really tune in to Larry mainly for the guest; if we didn’t want to see the Dixie Chicks last night, we would have turned to Hannity and Colmes or Joe Scarborough . And people right now are tuning in to see Dobbs get all frustrated about illegals, but when that debate is resolved or dies down, Dobbs will melt back in with the rest of CNN.
Comment by erljr — June 1, 2006 @ 2:12 pm
One week ago today, TVNewser went out of his way to post this:
“Paula Zahn averaged a stunningly low 366,000 total viewers, and a measly 58,000 in the demo.”
Tuesday night, Olbermann had 306,000 total viewers, 60,000 less than Zahn’s “stunningly low” figure. He finished 5th place in the demo with 88,000 viewers.
TVNewser has been silent about these “stunningly low” numbers, as well as Olbermann dropping from 2nd to 4th in the precious demo in a one-month period.
It’s a shame that the facts keep getting in the way of the myth that TVNewser is an impartial source for TV news information.
Comment by benllv — June 1, 2006 @ 5:36 pm
Olbermann was off Tuesday.
Comment by museglet — June 1, 2006 @ 7:12 pm
Was he off during the entire month of May, when his ratings fell to 4th place in the precious demo?
Comment by benllv — June 1, 2006 @ 7:24 pm