G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
How low (in the ratings) can Glenn Beck go?
By Eric Boehlert
Created Aug 1 2007 - 9:13am
Looks like the CNN news team threw the wrong anchor overboard last week.
Instead of unceremoniously dumping [1] Paula Zahn for her soft prime-time
ratings, the CNN brain trust should have axed Glenn Beck [1], whose
viewership is far smaller than Zahn's. In fact, on the night that Zahn
announced she was leaving CNN, Paula Zahn Now easily bested Glenn Beck in
the ratings, as it had often done for months.
Truth is, Beck's show has been in a ratings slump for most of this year.
(The show's audience peaked 10 months ago.) Yet the right-wing talker who
bashes progressives [2], Muslims, immigrants, and environmentalists when
he's not pimping [3] for the John Birch Society remains a CNN favorite among
his television bosses. If CNN were a meritocracy, it would be Beck out
looking for a job, not Zahn. Instead, CNN appears to be sponsoring some sort
of affirmative action program for an audience-challenged conservative who is
allowed to drive his ratings into the ground without fear of being ousted.
Here's how Zahn and Beck shaped up during the second quarter [4] this year.
Beck's weeknight show on CNN Headline News attracted, on average, 305,000
viewers, 111,000 of which were among the crucial 25-54 viewer demographic
that advertisers prefer. By comparison, Zahn during the second quarter
grabbed 557,000 viewers each night, 190,000 between the ages of 25-54. Yet
it's Zahn, and her comparatively solid nightly newscast, who gets pushed out
the door.
To recap CNN's strange affection for the unpopular right-wing TV host, Beck
was hired by CNN Headline News in January 2006 as part of the channel's
effort to open up its prime-time schedule and move beyond simply looping the
latest headlines. The previous year, CNN Headline News welcomed tabloid
crime chaser Nancy Grace. Phase two was to be the arrival of the radio
talk-show host Beck, whom CNN suits famously described as being "cordial"
and "not confrontational." An avowed non-journalist, hardcore conservative,
and self-described rodeo clown who has fantasized [4] on-air about killing
Michael Moore, Beck has proven to be anything but "cordial."
He has wondered [4] why former President Jimmy Carter did not attend a
"suicide bomber graduation ceremony." He compared [4] Al Gore to Adolf
Hitler. He suggested [4] that a black, Muslim member of Congress was loyal
to Al Qaeda. And he recently aired, on this radio show, a very creepy
monologue [4] about Rep. Dennis Kucinich's sex life:
BECK: What would be the drug that would be just powerful enough to make
you not really realize that you're making out with Dennis Kucinich? ... I
was thinking cyanide. That would be the only thing that would really dull
the senses enough. Even then, your dead body would be like, 'Dennis Kucinich
has his tongue in my mouth.' "
And then there was Beck's embrace [5] last week of the radical-right John
Birch Society, right on CNN Headline News. Just how extreme was Beck's move?
I did a transcript search on Nexis and determined that in the nearly 230,000
hours that CNN has broadcast since its inception 27 years ago, Beck's
program was the first time any CNN anchor or reporter interviewed a
spokesman from the John Birch Society and presented that person as an
authority on anything. And for good reason: The John Birch Society has for
decades danced on the far-right fringe [6] of American politics. It has
urged cutting off all U.S. foreign aid; it vehemently opposed the Civil
Rights movement; and the society claimed presidents Franklin Roosevelt,
Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson were all
communist sympathizers. But suddenly, thanks to Glenn Beck, John Birch
Society flacks are being tapped as (immigration) experts on CNN.
Regardless of the damage Beck was doing to the larger CNN brand, late last
year, CNN Headline News chiefs were crowing in the press about what a
breakout cable news star Beck had become, that he had the hottest show on
the dial, and that his show had grown CNN Headline News' ratings by 80
percent. (The New York Times [7] and The Washington Post [8] dutifully typed
up the good news with flattering profiles; to date neither newspaper has
reported on Beck's subsequent ratings demise.)
Soon after the 2006 midterm elections, though, the bottom began to fall out.
The most glaring, telltale moment of Beck's ratings collapse came on May 2,
when his much-hyped special taking a skeptical look at global warming was a
major ratings disappointment [9], finishing in last place at both 7 p.m. and
9 p.m. among total viewers, losing to the regularly scheduled cable news
offerings on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.
Maybe it's those dismal ratings that forced Beck, in yet another CNN first,
to start shilling [10] for sponsors on-air, in the middle of his program,
like a dollar-a-holler AM disc jockey: "I am proud to announce that
tonight's show is brought to you by the Sleep Number Bed and Select
Comforts." What's next, Beck testimonials for pesticides and recliners? (CNN
must have been so proud.)
The Beck ratings slump continues
Beck has tried to brush off his ratings slide as no big deal. According to
blogger and Glenn Beck foe Chris Achorn, the hardcore conservative host, on
his daily radio show, dismissed [11] "left-wing blogs that have proclaimed
my television show dead because of a bad four-week ratings period."
More like a bad four-month ratings period. Beck had an awful April [12], a
miserable May [13], a tepid June [14], and an up-and-down July.
It was in July that Beck subbed in for a vacationing Zahn at the 8 o'clock
hour on the mother ship, CNN. (This was right before Zahn's bosses gave her
the boot.) Beck's ratings were so weak, and he dragged CNN down so badly
[15], that MSNBC actually beat CNN for the week in prime-time ratings in the
25-54 demo; a feat MSNBC rarely accomplishes. In fact, prior to Beck's
appearance, the last time MSNBC beat CNN was in April, when MSNBC hosted a
prime-time [16] Democratic debate, which artificially spiked the channel's
weekly ratings. But the week Beck joined the CNN prime-time lineup --
bingo! -- MSNBC leap-frogged the competition [17].
The reason Zahn is being replaced is because her program often comes in
third place during the 8 p.m. time slot, not only losing badly to Fox News,
but also slipping behind MSNBC. As The New York Times reported [18]: "The
estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each
weeknight this year, according to Nielsen Media Research, represents less
than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch 'The O'Reilly Factor'
with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. Ms. Zahn's program also draws about 100,000
fewer viewers a night than 'Countdown With Keith Olbermann' on MSNBC."
So Zahn got shown the door for coming in third place. But Beck does her one
better; his show often comes in fourth place in its time slot. And forget
about losing to Countdown by 100,000 viewers. On two of the nights that Beck
filled in for Zahn on CNN at 8 p.m., the show lost to Countdown by nearly
400,000 viewers.
When Beck substituted for Zahn, he was actually hosting three prime-time
programs that week on the CNN schedule: at 8 p.m. on CNN, and Beck's usual
CNN Headline News program at 7 p.m., which then repeats at 9 p.m. It was
pretty much all Beck, all the time. Aside from the dreadful numbers he
pulled CNN, how did his CNN Headline News show do that week? Even worse. For
instance, on the night of July 3 [19], as the news of Scooter Libby's
commutation was being aggressively dissected by news junkies, Beck's
Headline News show at 9 p.m. attracted just 58,000 viewers between the ages
of 25-54, which is just a jaw-dropping number for prime-time cable
television. By comparison, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes was able to attract
369,000 demo viewers that night at 9 p.m.
And the July 3 showing was no holiday-week fluke. On July 20 [20], Beck's 9
p.m. telecast managed to nearly match that anemic showing, attracting just
60,000 demo viewers. Worse, on June 5 [21], Beck's 9 p.m. show was watched
by a microscopic 50,000 viewers between the ages of 25-54. But nothing could
sink lower than Beck's June 4 [22], 7 p.m. ratings performance, when his
show was watched by just 40,000 demo viewers, an unspeakably lame ratings
figure.
Is there any ratings depth Beck could hit that would finally trigger CNN
execs to rethink their failed experiment?
And even when Beck has, on occasion, bounced back with strong ratings, he's
often so far behind his competitors he can barely see them. For instance,
when news broke on June 8 [23] that celebrity socialite Paris Hilton was
being taken back to jail to serve out her drunken-driving sentence, Beck's
ratings that night spiked. At 7 p.m. his show grabbed 427,000 viewers, one
of his best showings in months. The only problem was he still lost to the
competition, whose ratings rose even more thanks to the Hilton-driven media
frenzy.
And don't think just because Beck's show airs on CNN's little sister,
Headline News, that the channel's not capable of grabbing big ratings. Nancy
Grace
has turned into a sizeable hit for the Headline News, attracting
approximately 493,000 viewers each night; 187,000 in the 25-54 demo. In
fact, Headline News' prime-time lineup sometimes resembles a yo-yo [24],
going up and down each night between Grace (up) and Beck (down). Both
gab-fests air twice each night; Beck at 7 and 9 p.m., Grace at 8 and 10 p.m.
After Beck's poorly rated 7 o'clock broadcast is over, ratings shoot up for
Grace. When her broadcast is over, ratings drop back down for Beck at 9
o'clock. And then, like clockwork, ratings jump right back up again for
Grace at 10 o'clock. In the television business, it's called losing your
lead-in; being unable to retain viewers who watched the previous show on the
same channel.
All of which begs this question: In the hyper-competitive, big-money world
of cable television news, who at CNN is protecting the underperforming Glenn
Beck, and why?
UPDATE: In a July 31 press release [25], CNN Headline News boasted that for
the month of July, ratings for Glenn Beck, in its 7 p.m. ET time slot, were
up 11 percent among viewers 25-54 (to 110,000), and 25-54 ratings were up 30
percent in the 9 p.m. slot (to 113,000). What CNN Headline News did not
mention is that last September Glenn Beck averaged [26] 149,000 viewers in
the 25-54 demo in both the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. time slots. So even with his
July ratings increase, Beck is still playing catch-up.
_______
About author A senior fellow at Media Matters for America, and a former
senior writer for Salon, Boehlert's first book, "Lapdogs: How The Press
Rolled Over for Bush," was published in May. He can be reached at
eboehlert@aol.com [27]
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Eric Boehlert
Created Aug 1 2007 - 9:13am
Looks like the CNN news team threw the wrong anchor overboard last week.
Instead of unceremoniously dumping [1] Paula Zahn for her soft prime-time
ratings, the CNN brain trust should have axed Glenn Beck [1], whose
viewership is far smaller than Zahn's. In fact, on the night that Zahn
announced she was leaving CNN, Paula Zahn Now easily bested Glenn Beck in
the ratings, as it had often done for months.
Truth is, Beck's show has been in a ratings slump for most of this year.
(The show's audience peaked 10 months ago.) Yet the right-wing talker who
bashes progressives [2], Muslims, immigrants, and environmentalists when
he's not pimping [3] for the John Birch Society remains a CNN favorite among
his television bosses. If CNN were a meritocracy, it would be Beck out
looking for a job, not Zahn. Instead, CNN appears to be sponsoring some sort
of affirmative action program for an audience-challenged conservative who is
allowed to drive his ratings into the ground without fear of being ousted.
Here's how Zahn and Beck shaped up during the second quarter [4] this year.
Beck's weeknight show on CNN Headline News attracted, on average, 305,000
viewers, 111,000 of which were among the crucial 25-54 viewer demographic
that advertisers prefer. By comparison, Zahn during the second quarter
grabbed 557,000 viewers each night, 190,000 between the ages of 25-54. Yet
it's Zahn, and her comparatively solid nightly newscast, who gets pushed out
the door.
To recap CNN's strange affection for the unpopular right-wing TV host, Beck
was hired by CNN Headline News in January 2006 as part of the channel's
effort to open up its prime-time schedule and move beyond simply looping the
latest headlines. The previous year, CNN Headline News welcomed tabloid
crime chaser Nancy Grace. Phase two was to be the arrival of the radio
talk-show host Beck, whom CNN suits famously described as being "cordial"
and "not confrontational." An avowed non-journalist, hardcore conservative,
and self-described rodeo clown who has fantasized [4] on-air about killing
Michael Moore, Beck has proven to be anything but "cordial."
He has wondered [4] why former President Jimmy Carter did not attend a
"suicide bomber graduation ceremony." He compared [4] Al Gore to Adolf
Hitler. He suggested [4] that a black, Muslim member of Congress was loyal
to Al Qaeda. And he recently aired, on this radio show, a very creepy
monologue [4] about Rep. Dennis Kucinich's sex life:
BECK: What would be the drug that would be just powerful enough to make
you not really realize that you're making out with Dennis Kucinich? ... I
was thinking cyanide. That would be the only thing that would really dull
the senses enough. Even then, your dead body would be like, 'Dennis Kucinich
has his tongue in my mouth.' "
And then there was Beck's embrace [5] last week of the radical-right John
Birch Society, right on CNN Headline News. Just how extreme was Beck's move?
I did a transcript search on Nexis and determined that in the nearly 230,000
hours that CNN has broadcast since its inception 27 years ago, Beck's
program was the first time any CNN anchor or reporter interviewed a
spokesman from the John Birch Society and presented that person as an
authority on anything. And for good reason: The John Birch Society has for
decades danced on the far-right fringe [6] of American politics. It has
urged cutting off all U.S. foreign aid; it vehemently opposed the Civil
Rights movement; and the society claimed presidents Franklin Roosevelt,
Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson were all
communist sympathizers. But suddenly, thanks to Glenn Beck, John Birch
Society flacks are being tapped as (immigration) experts on CNN.
Regardless of the damage Beck was doing to the larger CNN brand, late last
year, CNN Headline News chiefs were crowing in the press about what a
breakout cable news star Beck had become, that he had the hottest show on
the dial, and that his show had grown CNN Headline News' ratings by 80
percent. (The New York Times [7] and The Washington Post [8] dutifully typed
up the good news with flattering profiles; to date neither newspaper has
reported on Beck's subsequent ratings demise.)
Soon after the 2006 midterm elections, though, the bottom began to fall out.
The most glaring, telltale moment of Beck's ratings collapse came on May 2,
when his much-hyped special taking a skeptical look at global warming was a
major ratings disappointment [9], finishing in last place at both 7 p.m. and
9 p.m. among total viewers, losing to the regularly scheduled cable news
offerings on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.
Maybe it's those dismal ratings that forced Beck, in yet another CNN first,
to start shilling [10] for sponsors on-air, in the middle of his program,
like a dollar-a-holler AM disc jockey: "I am proud to announce that
tonight's show is brought to you by the Sleep Number Bed and Select
Comforts." What's next, Beck testimonials for pesticides and recliners? (CNN
must have been so proud.)
The Beck ratings slump continues
Beck has tried to brush off his ratings slide as no big deal. According to
blogger and Glenn Beck foe Chris Achorn, the hardcore conservative host, on
his daily radio show, dismissed [11] "left-wing blogs that have proclaimed
my television show dead because of a bad four-week ratings period."
More like a bad four-month ratings period. Beck had an awful April [12], a
miserable May [13], a tepid June [14], and an up-and-down July.
It was in July that Beck subbed in for a vacationing Zahn at the 8 o'clock
hour on the mother ship, CNN. (This was right before Zahn's bosses gave her
the boot.) Beck's ratings were so weak, and he dragged CNN down so badly
[15], that MSNBC actually beat CNN for the week in prime-time ratings in the
25-54 demo; a feat MSNBC rarely accomplishes. In fact, prior to Beck's
appearance, the last time MSNBC beat CNN was in April, when MSNBC hosted a
prime-time [16] Democratic debate, which artificially spiked the channel's
weekly ratings. But the week Beck joined the CNN prime-time lineup --
bingo! -- MSNBC leap-frogged the competition [17].
The reason Zahn is being replaced is because her program often comes in
third place during the 8 p.m. time slot, not only losing badly to Fox News,
but also slipping behind MSNBC. As The New York Times reported [18]: "The
estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each
weeknight this year, according to Nielsen Media Research, represents less
than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch 'The O'Reilly Factor'
with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. Ms. Zahn's program also draws about 100,000
fewer viewers a night than 'Countdown With Keith Olbermann' on MSNBC."
So Zahn got shown the door for coming in third place. But Beck does her one
better; his show often comes in fourth place in its time slot. And forget
about losing to Countdown by 100,000 viewers. On two of the nights that Beck
filled in for Zahn on CNN at 8 p.m., the show lost to Countdown by nearly
400,000 viewers.
When Beck substituted for Zahn, he was actually hosting three prime-time
programs that week on the CNN schedule: at 8 p.m. on CNN, and Beck's usual
CNN Headline News program at 7 p.m., which then repeats at 9 p.m. It was
pretty much all Beck, all the time. Aside from the dreadful numbers he
pulled CNN, how did his CNN Headline News show do that week? Even worse. For
instance, on the night of July 3 [19], as the news of Scooter Libby's
commutation was being aggressively dissected by news junkies, Beck's
Headline News show at 9 p.m. attracted just 58,000 viewers between the ages
of 25-54, which is just a jaw-dropping number for prime-time cable
television. By comparison, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes was able to attract
369,000 demo viewers that night at 9 p.m.
And the July 3 showing was no holiday-week fluke. On July 20 [20], Beck's 9
p.m. telecast managed to nearly match that anemic showing, attracting just
60,000 demo viewers. Worse, on June 5 [21], Beck's 9 p.m. show was watched
by a microscopic 50,000 viewers between the ages of 25-54. But nothing could
sink lower than Beck's June 4 [22], 7 p.m. ratings performance, when his
show was watched by just 40,000 demo viewers, an unspeakably lame ratings
figure.
Is there any ratings depth Beck could hit that would finally trigger CNN
execs to rethink their failed experiment?
And even when Beck has, on occasion, bounced back with strong ratings, he's
often so far behind his competitors he can barely see them. For instance,
when news broke on June 8 [23] that celebrity socialite Paris Hilton was
being taken back to jail to serve out her drunken-driving sentence, Beck's
ratings that night spiked. At 7 p.m. his show grabbed 427,000 viewers, one
of his best showings in months. The only problem was he still lost to the
competition, whose ratings rose even more thanks to the Hilton-driven media
frenzy.
And don't think just because Beck's show airs on CNN's little sister,
Headline News, that the channel's not capable of grabbing big ratings. Nancy
Grace
has turned into a sizeable hit for the Headline News, attracting
approximately 493,000 viewers each night; 187,000 in the 25-54 demo. In
fact, Headline News' prime-time lineup sometimes resembles a yo-yo [24],
going up and down each night between Grace (up) and Beck (down). Both
gab-fests air twice each night; Beck at 7 and 9 p.m., Grace at 8 and 10 p.m.
After Beck's poorly rated 7 o'clock broadcast is over, ratings shoot up for
Grace. When her broadcast is over, ratings drop back down for Beck at 9
o'clock. And then, like clockwork, ratings jump right back up again for
Grace at 10 o'clock. In the television business, it's called losing your
lead-in; being unable to retain viewers who watched the previous show on the
same channel.
All of which begs this question: In the hyper-competitive, big-money world
of cable television news, who at CNN is protecting the underperforming Glenn
Beck, and why?
UPDATE: In a July 31 press release [25], CNN Headline News boasted that for
the month of July, ratings for Glenn Beck, in its 7 p.m. ET time slot, were
up 11 percent among viewers 25-54 (to 110,000), and 25-54 ratings were up 30
percent in the 9 p.m. slot (to 113,000). What CNN Headline News did not
mention is that last September Glenn Beck averaged [26] 149,000 viewers in
the 25-54 demo in both the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. time slots. So even with his
July ratings increase, Beck is still playing catch-up.
_______
About author A senior fellow at Media Matters for America, and a former
senior writer for Salon, Boehlert's first book, "Lapdogs: How The Press
Rolled Over for Bush," was published in May. He can be reached at
eboehlert@aol.com [27]
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson