July ratings: 8pm examined…
Here’s a chart showing how the channels did during the 8pm hour. Among Total Viewers there hasn’t been much change. O’Reilly is well ahead of everyone. Paula Zahn Now is firmly in second. Nancy Grace is in 3rd (but off her highs of a year ago. I’d love to see a year to year comparison of Grace’s show month by month 2005 vs. 2006. I suspect that most of the 2006 months are lower than their 2005 counterparts.) Countdown is in fourth.
I’d like to see Zahn and Grace cut into BO’s ratings a bit, but KO has to go. The “Daily Show” format simply doesn’t work on MSNBC. Maybe Tucker could slide in up there? He’d definitely offer conservative viewers an alternative in the time slot…
Comment by Matticus Finch — August 1, 2006 @ 5:53 pm
Thanks to MSNBC absolutely laxidasical coverage of the crisis in the middle east, all of there programs have been hit hard in the ratings.
MSNBC used to get much bigger bumps out of situations like this in the past. The reason they aren’t getting one now is because they basically ignored the story of close to a week, and continue to do so now. Minus some coverage on Hardball, the first half hour of Countdown and part of Tucker, expanded coverage on the network has been non-existant.
I bet those slides came from FNC. Notice how they use the PR shots for everyone but Olbermann.
Comment by BlogThat — August 1, 2006 @ 6:02 pm
heh - you Dump-Olbermann people crack me up. Check out the full PDF file that Brian posted at TVNewser. Olbermann still has the highest ratings (total and demo) on MSNBC primetime. You’re nuts if you think they’re going to cut him loose until such time, if ever, as they have another program (or two) doing as well.
Tucker’s ratings? not so hot.
Comment by Arthur — August 1, 2006 @ 6:02 pm
The shadow of itself CNN sold a Paula Zahn doesn’t suck as much as she used to story to tvnewser.com. They say MSNBC’s closest competition is HLN at 8, not CNN. Which is funny because you realize that CNN has realized they can’t touch fox, so they’re now going after poor MSNBC instead. But MSNBC is up more % pts. than CNN !!!!!!!
Comment by Staycee — August 1, 2006 @ 6:25 pm
Arthur, that’s not saying much. MSNBC’s coverage of anything lately (but celebrity sleaze) has been awful.
Comment by Goldfish — August 1, 2006 @ 6:30 pm
I’m not saying their coverage of anything is great, just that they’re not likely to dump their highest rated show.
Sadly, those hideous True Crime documentaries they’re putting in at 10 and 11 are drawing way more viewers than whoever was there before, so expect to see more Trash and Slash.
Comment by Arthur — August 1, 2006 @ 6:32 pm
I think you are correct, Arthur.
Comment by Goldfish — August 1, 2006 @ 6:44 pm
Arthur speaks truth. KO doesn’t “have to go,” but Tucker just may–and I don’t mean to the Middle East.
And in case anyone missed it, Tucker was laying into Bill O’Reilly yesterday on his show. Maybe he has listened to all the conservatives who told him that’s the only reason Olbermann’s ratings went up and he figures it will work for him too!
Comment by tanne — August 1, 2006 @ 7:16 pm
Oh man, I just saw the graph. Who came up with this thing? Fox News? It was obviously designed to portray Olbermann as a ranting maniac whose situation is “code red.” Please.
Comment by tanne — August 1, 2006 @ 7:18 pm
Tanne, you just described exactly what Keith Olbermann has become. And his ratings clearly reflect it, despite the best efforts of you, MSNBC PR, and Brian Stelter. Thanks!
Comment by Jimmy — August 1, 2006 @ 7:29 pm
I surfed past MSNBC for a moment and lo and behold, KO is actually having a Mel Gibson Puppet Theater. Dan Abrams, are you watching??
Comment by sophia — August 1, 2006 @ 8:28 pm
Really sad when BOR beats all his competitors combined and still have hundreds or thousands of viewers to spare. Hahaha
I agree get rid of what’s his face. Left-wing tv just doesn’t work. Who wants to tune in to a channel and all you hear is America’s bad, Bush bashing, doom and gloom etc…. LOL
Comment by Lurker — August 1, 2006 @ 8:31 pm
I agree get rid of what’s his face. Left-wing tv just doesn’t work. Who wants to tune in to a channel and all you hear is America’s bad, Bush bashing, doom and gloom etc…. LOL
Wow, that’s some reasoned analysis you got going on there, guy. Can’t argue with that… [*roll eyes*]
Comment by Arthur — August 1, 2006 @ 9:14 pm
By the end of August, Meltdown with Keith Odorman will be in 5th place behind whatever is on CNBC.
Comment by Tom — August 1, 2006 @ 10:40 pm
As of Monday, Tucker has gone tabloid too. Countdown has always been half tabloid. Scarborough made the switch a while back, with a brief return to real news for the beginning of the Middle East conflict. The Most is over half tabloid as well.
So it appears to me this is MSNBC’s new idenity. The only one left is Hardball. Did anyone see how hard he was trying to smile Monday?
Comment by erljr — August 1, 2006 @ 10:54 pm
Scarborough, Countdown and now Tucker, all at least partially tabloid. If they wanted tabloid, why was Rita demoted (or whatever they’re calling it)? They should have just kept her and “Live and Direct” on the air.
I feel sorry for these guys having to cover tabloid stories. I don’t think ANY of them signed up to do so!
Comment by Missy — August 1, 2006 @ 11:14 pm
There’s apparently a market for tabloid, however, so for all of me, MSNBC can just go for it and be Trash Central Television. I agree that it’s a little hard on the people who thought they were hired on to do journalism, and hope they can find jobs at real news nets.
Comment by Arthur — August 2, 2006 @ 12:25 am
Countdown has NEVER been tabloid. Only conservatives who can’t stand to see anything negative about Bush on the air or think that criticizing the government equals “hating America” think so.
Those attitudes are clearly outlined here: that Bill O’Reilly’s ratings are the highest, therefore he must be the best and conservative viewpoints should be all that is available to the American public. Please. Enough already. And enough with all the cheap namecalling, Brian Stelter bashing, etc.
There is one thing I have to agree with. I think that MSNBC IS becoming Tabloid Central. ONLY Countdown (because Keeping Tabs and the #1 story are usually the only tabloidy parts of it) and Hardball (two people yelling at each other in 5-minute segments…not much of an improvement) are not. Scarborough Country and Tucker have turned into Rita clones, so it does kind of make you wonder why they bothered canceling Rita at all. Then you have the “DOC-BLOC”: yeah, let’s everyone watch the story of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo for the 150 thousandth time!! Yeah!!
Comment by tanne — August 2, 2006 @ 6:40 am
If you don’t know why they cancelled Rita, you haven’t been watching.
But I am saddened to see these two fine newsmen turn into gossip column clones. I refer to Joe and Tucker.
Maybe there is still hope for Tucker, but I am afraid Joe has turned the corner for good.
Comment by cella — August 2, 2006 @ 6:59 am
A lot of people thought Rita was responsible for the tabloid at MSNBC. Since other hosts are doing it, who ya gonna blame now? Could it be…oh…ummmmmm….MANAGEMENT? Dan Abrmas? nah, I would say higher than that.
Comment by Terance — August 2, 2006 @ 8:09 am
No, we will not stop with pointing out that Brian Stelter hyped the living hell out of Countdown when it finished second in a demo he deems important for ONE QUARTER. The previous quarter, he finished 3rd in TVNewser’s demo, behind O’Reilly and Grace, and now, he is back in 4th in total viewers (the only important category) and 3rd in Stelter’s demo. He’s plummeting, and his only response has been saluting the former German National Socialist party. Genius!
Comment by Jack — August 2, 2006 @ 8:33 am
Tanne - You’re a stand up guy to defend your lapdog Brian Stelter. Especially after you outed him as a lap dog that was favorable when you were out in Pasadena giving Nazi salutes.
Comment by Staycee — August 2, 2006 @ 9:41 am
Tanne - You’re a stand up guy to defend your lapdog Brian Stelter. Especially after you outed him as a lap dog that was favorable when you were out in Pasadena giving Nazi salutes.
Comment by Staycee — August 2, 2006 @ 9:43 am
I thought Tanne was some wacked out women??? As for that Brian guy who cares what he does with his site. ICN is way better. We can comment here unlike that site where he cherry picks what comments get on.
Comment by Lurker — August 2, 2006 @ 10:06 am
Agreed, Lurker. And word has certainly been getting around the internet about Stelter’s conflicts of interests when it comes to MSNBC and Olbermann. Although I’m sure he’d point to the USA Today column where MSNBC execs sucked up to him, which they have to. He’s the only friend that network, and especially Olbermann, have left.
Comment by Jack — August 2, 2006 @ 10:46 am
“Countdown has NEVER been tabloid.”
Monday night more than half of Countdown was devoted to celebs and tabloid news. Tuesday night Mel Gibson was the lead story; the war in the middle east got all of three minutes of coverage. Of the entire hour eleven minutes was hard news; the rest was celebs, pop culture, and Mel Gibson puppets. Is it mere coincidence that after Scarborough becomes more and more tabloid-oriented, now Countdown actually does more fluff each hour than real news?
Comment by johnny dollar — August 2, 2006 @ 11:25 am
“I thought Tanne was some wacked out women???”
Gee, and I thought Lurker was some ‘roided-out frat rat.
Comment by Arthur — August 2, 2006 @ 1:34 pm
Wow…so much criticism of Mr. Stelter. Well, he’s right about Olbermann and moving ahead of Zahn in the Demo. It was news. And it was important. CNN like MSNBC has been trumpeting the Demo number thing for a while now so to have one of its own shows drop to 3rd behind MSNBC…well that’s news. But that also means that the fact that Countdown is now slipping back to 3rd again is news as well.
Comment by Spud — August 2, 2006 @ 2:47 pm
The segment on the middle east was longer than 3 minutes I believe, as it consisted of two package reports from Martin Fletcher and Richard Engel. The number three story was about military readiness and Castro’s health. The number two story was about MTV 25th (from Nightly News in 1984), which I thought was hard news considering the impact the network has had on culture.
Regardless, there was was way to much Gibson everywhere yesterday
Comment by BlogThat — August 2, 2006 @ 2:56 pm
“The segment on the middle east was longer than 3 minutes I believe”
I am sorry but you are very mistaken. The entirety of Countdown’s middle east coverage ran from 8:17 pm to 8:20 pm. If you think MTV is hard news rather than pop culture news and deserves more time than the war in the Middle East, then Countdown IS the show for you.
Comment by johnny dollar — August 2, 2006 @ 3:15 pm
“If you think MTV is hard news rather than pop culture news and deserves more time than the war in the Middle East, then Countdown IS the show for you.”
JD - would you consider a story about Google ‘pop culture’? How ’bout news that ATT might be providing the government information about their subscribers’ calling patterns?
Does there have to be blood and/or politicians before it’s ‘hard news’? Just asking, because I don’t know the CW-accepted definition of ‘hard news’ any more.
Comment by Arthur — August 2, 2006 @ 4:20 pm