Keith Olberman's Ratings vs Bill O'Reillys

[romantico]

I hear Billo give his numbers and see Drudge giving numbers. Is there an accurate way of seeing who's numbers are better? I know Bill's are higher, but doesn't he exaggerate his ratings to some extent?

[Captain Hilts]

1. They're all lousy. The cable news networks still don't challenge the networks.

Though I think O'Reilly's show used to be one of the highest rated on cable.

[Ex Lurker]

8. True dat. Add them all up and they're less than 1% of the US population n/t

[Captain Hilts]

11. It shows how folks place FAR too much emphasis on these shows. nt

[Dennis Donovan]

2. TV Newseer is a great site - they publich nightly Niwlsens:

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

[FLAprogressive]

5. the commenters are crazy douchebags who are obsessed with the "LIBRUL MEDIA"

[Beaverhausen]

3. look at it this way - you are splitting 3-4 moderate channels with one right-wing channel

all the right wingers watch Fox, but the moderates and left chose between 3-4 others, so CNN, MSNBC and HNN will always have lower ratings.

[NC_Nurse]

4. I think it's partly because more old folks are right leaning, so they watch Fox.

Younger, more liberal folks tend to not watch the tube as much - some use the internet for news and chat. Many moderates don't watch any of it or pay attention to
political shows at all. When they do, they may switch around more between all of the networks.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

7. Who you callin old? Is 50 old? How about 70?

Every boomer I know is a flaming liberal. Also, look at the pics of anti Bush policy (any Bush policy) demonstrations and what you mostly see is boomers.

I urge you to re-think your premise cause you are incorrect. Us geezers, especially the ones who lived through Nixon are still Hippies at heart.

[NC_Nurse]

10. I'm not saying that ALL older folks are conservative, but the largest percentage

of Repubs is over 65 - and many of them don't use a computer. They watch TV. That's all I'm saying.

I am no spring chicken myself. But being a nurse, I deal with a LOT of older folks and MOST of them seem to be pretty conservative. Of course, I
AM in the South, which makes a big difference too.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Every Sunday the NY Times summarizes the week's...

Top 10 ratings. One of the categories is simply "Cable" and O'Reilly often makes it in there-- often only "news" show, with anything on MSNBC or CNN hardly ever showing up.

Now, understand that even though his is the highest rated cable "news" show, he rarely makes it up to half of SpongeBob's ratings and never, ever comes close at all to wrestling's. And, of course, NO cable show, even wrestling, is ever even the tiniest percentage of "American Idol." Or even "CSI."

Consistantly, the best rated news show every week is "60 minutes."

Treasoonous, the Critic

[Captain Hilts]

12. Hey TB, everything you typed is true. The audience for these cable shows is

darned close to being statistically insignificant.

[mr_liberal]

9. I don't think so, but you have to combine Olbermann with

Campbell Brown who is fairly liberal as well. O'Reilly wins because he has a niche all to himself. There is no other Conservative channel on tv. Thats why Fox News does so well. If you combine the other cable news networks though you find that its pretty even.

Theres also demographics. I think Olbermanns viewers are younger and more prized by advertisers. Fox News and O'Reilly's audience tends to skew older.