Glenn Beck's ratings: Not as meteoric as people think

[RamboLiberal]

From Daily Kos by Jed Lewison:

Yesterday, for some reason or another, I was curious to see how Glenn Beck had been doing in the ratings department...so I collected the ratings for each and every one of his TV broadcasts since the premiere of his show on Fox in January, 2009.

Next, I calculated the average audience size for each week that the show has been on the air, and put the numbers into a chart. (To be fair and balanced, I excluded the weeks of the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's holidays, each of which artificially depressed Beck's numbers.)

The chart revealed something of a surprise: since Glenn Beck's ratings peak during the week ending January 22 (the week of Beck's special "Revolutionary Holocaust: Live free or die" broadcast), Beck's ratings have been on a steep slide, dropping nearly 50%.

In fact, last week, Beck averaged less than 2 million viewers for the first time since the middle of July. He did take vacation for part of the week, but his ratings were still lower than during previous vacations.

If you factor out his vacation, Beck probably has a solid, dependable audience in the range of 2.6 million. Those numbers are decent, but they hardly represent a meteoric rise from the 2.25 million or so that he averaged in his show's first few months. He's managed to deliver some impressive spikes in his audience, but he generally hasn't held those spikes. To the extent that Beck's baseline audience has grown, it essentially mirrors Fox's overall growth. In other words, Beck may not be the ratings machine most think he is.



http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/4/8/855357/-Glenn-Becks-ratings:-Not-as-meteoric-as-people-think

[Oceansaway]

1. it's that darn blackboard....n/t

[Writer]

2. This blogger needs to go back...

Beck improved the time slot by 101% year over year (from Jan. '08). He needs to take a look.

[RamboLiberal]

3. Beck has shot his wad - his ratings have started to slide a bit

and even out. I agree with the blogger. I look almost every day at the ratings provided on TVNewswer(Mediabistro) site. Beck's becoming a parody of himself.

[Writer]

4. No the blogger has the current data correct...

but a year over year analysis would be more complete.

i used to work with ratings for a living

[RamboLiberal]

5. Yeah he greatly increased Faux ratings from the time he started

in that time period. But the point the blogger is making is that Beck's ratings are starting to decline over his own previous ratings. Beck's ratings also do some wild swings depending on what he is pushing like his 9-12 project or his Live Free or Die. The point the blogger is making is in order to keep his ratings up Beck is going to have to get crazier and crazier and at some point he truly does become the rodeo clown and flame out.

We'll see if he has the staying power or do the people finally wake up to this whackjob and the BS he's selling them.

This is Beck at one of his zenith's in Aug 2009. Note over 3 million viewers. Incredible for summer at 5PM! Now he's seemed to have settled back to around 2.3 million viewers and he's no longer besting O' Reilly.

Big Beck: Goes over 3 million viewers, beats O’Reilly in demo: Cable News Ratings for Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Posted on 27 August 2009 by Robert Seidman

update: Beck again led all shows (including The O’Reilly Factor) in the adults 25-54 demographic on Thursday night.

Though a little scandal might alienate advertisers, it’s pure ratings gold. Last night Glenn Beck had over 3 million viewers at 5pm, second only to O’Reilly for the night. But, Beck had more 25-54 viewers than O’Reilly (888K to 876K). I don’t watch or really even care about the cable news wars, but still…wow. Even though Beck airs before primetime, when there are fewer people watching TV, he had the most 25-54 viewers in the cable news world for the night.


http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/08/27/big-beck-goes-over-3-million-viewers-beats-oreilly-in-demo-cable-news-ratings-for-wednesday-august-26-2009/25541

April 7, 2010
5PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Glenn Beck – 2,388,000 viewers (669,000) (1,198,000)
Situation Room—479,000 viewers (95,000) (141,000)
Hardball w/ C. Matthews – 561,000 viewers (132,000) (269,000)
Fast Money – 232,000 viewers (a scratch w/41,000) (96,000)
Showbiz Tonight —271,000 viewers (110,000) (152,000)

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/04/08/cable-news-ratings-for-wednesday-april-7-2010/47780#more-47780

April 6, 2010
5PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Glenn Beck – 2,336,000 viewers (610,000) (1,092,000)
Situation Room—580,000 viewers (100,000) (191,000)
Hardball w/ C. Matthews – 514,000 viewers (88,000) (225,000)
Fast Money – 269,000 viewers (64,000) (138,000)
Showbiz Tonight —159,000 viewers (a scratch w/37,000) (64,000)

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/04/07/cable-news-ratings-for-tuesday-april-6-2010/47687#more-47687

April 5, 2010
5PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Glenn Beck – 2,229,000 viewers (589,000) (1,070,000)
Situation Room—554,000 viewers (159,000) (246,000)
Hardball w/ C. Matthews – 509,000 viewers (82,000) (196,000)
Fast Money – 179,000 viewers (a scratch w/36,000) (90,000)
Showbiz Tonight —247,000 viewers (68,000) (108,000)

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/04/06/cable-news-ratings-for-monday-april-5-2010/47575#more-47575

[Liberal Gramma]

6. Who are these people?

And who turns on the TV sets for them?