No More Updates/Blogging For Awhile: Soccer Awaits

Updates

October 18, 2012:

CABLE NEWS RACE THURS OCT 18 2012 
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,865,000 
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,729,000 
CMDY DAILY SHOW 2,806,000 
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,753,000 
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,567,000 
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,355,000 
FOXNEWS FIVE 2,242,000 
CMDY COLBERT 1,912,000 
MSNBC MADDOW 1,839,000 
MSNBC O'DONNELL 1,557,000 
MSNBC HARDBALL 1,119,000 
MSNBC SHARPTON 1,092,000 
CNN PIERS 894,000 
CNN COOPER 662,000

Wow, look how far The Daily Show has moved up, see original post. This past week President Obama was on The Daily Show in which he said the loss of four Americans is "not optimal," referring to the Libyan debacle. Interestingly, The Drudge Report has removed Morning Joe, along with Fox News and Friends, the two morning shows. In my original post, I pointed out that Morning Joe was an outlier, possible because it was a morning show, among other reasons. Blitzer has also been removed, and Cooper has fallen to the bottom. Generally, all have seen an increase in their numbers, including O'Reilly and Hannity.

And speaking of equal pay for equal work (I do believe she works harder than he in this case):

This morning, as MSNBC's Morning Joe came to an end, co-host Mika Brzezinski had some praise for colleagues and the company she works for. "We've been talking a lot this week about women and equal pay and all these issues," she said.

"I have to say, in all seriousness, I'm very lucky to be working with you [co-host Joe Scarborough] and for a company [MSNBC] who has actually dealt with this problem transparently."

Which basically amounts to Brzezinski saying that she is "lucky" to get paid half as much as Joe Scarborough.

October 7, 2012: Based on the comments from one reader (unpublished) it appears that the original post below was subject to misinterpretation. I almost never do this, but I have updated the original post without showing where the changes have been made. I was trying to make a point regarding television ratings, not a political point. The point I'm trying to make is to question why a conservative, "Joe," is an out-lier in the ratings. The conservative talk shows are in the upper half of the ratings list below; the only conservative, not only in the bottom half, but at the very bottom of the list. It may be nothing more than the time-slot. If so, The Drudge Report should point that out. The only competitor in the list below to "Joe" in the same slot is Fox and Friends, and it, too, is at the bottom of the FoxNews list.

Original Post

From the Drudge Report. These are the numbers for October 4, 2012; the rankings (or the numbers, for that matter) don't change much from day-to-day. I find it interesting that two comedy "news" shows out-rank ALL MSNBC news talk shows and all CNN news talk shows (except of course CNN News and CNN Headline News, which are not reported).

There is an interesting out-lier in the list below. Most agree that the top half of the list is conservative in content and commentary; most agree that the bottom half of the list is liberal in content and commentary. But then the outlier: "Joe" is a conservative and he is at the bottom of the list -- way at the bottom with about as many viewers as North Dakota has people. Why is he not in the upper half of the list? Of course, his is a morning show and that may be the reason (Fox and Friends is also a morning show but it is not really in the same genre as "Joe."

Having said all that, it's incredible that with the ratings, "Joe" has kept his all-liberal line-up and worse, has kept the person who reads the news. I wouldn't want him to replace that individual with Peggy Noonan to "read the news" but Ms Noonan might improve the ratings for "Morning Joe." I would assume, but could be wrong, that "Joe" would like to increase his viewership. Based on The Drudge numbers, conservative talk shows are winning the ratings war. One wonders if the supporting cast for "Joe" was less liberal if he would attract a larger audience. Maybe not: it might all have to do with the time slot for his show. Maybe folks are not so interested in "all politics all the time" at 7:00 a.m. as they are with "all politics all the time" at 7:00 p.m. Different demographics for the two viewing times, I would assume.

But, wow, "Joe" -- who could be so much better without his current line-up -- trails CNN Cooper! [I haven't watched any of the morning shows -- much of television at all, for that matter -- since July, 2012, so it's possible his line-up has changed. Though I doubt it.]

Good luck to all. Enjoy your day.

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 4,280,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,908,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 3,248,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,243,000
FOXNEWS THE FIVE 2,310,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,243,000
CMDY DAILY SHOW 1,841,000
FOXNEWS FOX&FRIENDS 1,741,000
CMDY COLBERT 1,456,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,286,000
MSNBC O'DONNELL 1,193,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 1,109,000
MSNBC SHARPTON 1,044,000
CNN COOPER 645,000
CNN BLITZER 624,000
CNN PIERS 598,000
MSNBC MORNING JOE 576,000