Never watched him, never will. Afraid my eyeballs will sear, and I know of his evil only second-hand through the prism of Stephen Colbert’s acid mimic. But I’m aware O’Reilly’s influence has been pernicious, and so was happy to read that influence is rapidly waning in the 25-54 age group.
In a ratings dive that should concern both his advertisers and the Republican Party, Bill O’Reilly has lost over half his viewers in the 25-54 age demographic in the last eight months, from over one million viewers in that group down to 415,000.
O’Reilly is apparently turning off the quick, and isn’t making it up with a gain in the dying dinosaurs (a slag I may make with impunity, since I’ve aged out of the demographic myself).
O’Reilly still delivers to what is considered a “respectable” 2,102,000 million viewers but that, too, is his lowest overall viewership since July of 2004.
Anybody got Colbert’s figures? Wouldn’t be wonderfully ironic if O’Reilly’s loss equalled Colbert’s gain?
From Media Bistro:
“Young viewers just don’t watch The O’Reilly Factor like they used to. April marked Bill O’Reilly’s lowest-rated month in the 25-54 demographic since August 2001.
His 415,000 demo viewers in March was a new low, but O’Reilly managed to lose a few more in April, averaging 412,000 in the demo. Here’s his post-Katrina track:
Sept: 1,115 / Oct: 518 / Nov: 468 / Dec: 460 / Jan: 472 / Feb: 458 / Mar: 415
But this trend started long before the hurricane. for O’Reilly, April’s numbers reflected his lowest demo rating in almost five years.
Among total viewers, O’Reilly delivered a respectable 2,102,000 million viewers for the month. But that, too, was low — the lowest, in fact, since July of 2004 (when he had 2,042,000). Click continued to feast your eyes on O’Reilly’s monthly averages since 2001…
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/in_the_demo_oreilly_hits_a_new_low_36407.asp#more