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
THIS JUST IN: According to the NY Post Colbert’s mocking at the White House Correspondents dinner, has raised his viewship 37% in the last week:
“The Colbert Report” averaged just under 1.5 million total viewers for its four episodes last week, an increase of 37 percent over the show’s year-to-date average through April 30.
About two-thirds of those viewers were in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 year old demographic.”
Poor, poor Bill. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.
His audience must have gone to watch something more important, something more hardhitting, like, umm, the Rugrats.
That’s an insult to Tommy and Anjelica.
:<)
Yeah, at least with Rugrats you know that Angelica is going to be a troublemaker but that she will usually get it right back in her face.
One thing you don’t note, in an otherwise excellent diary, is that Countdown with Keith Olbermann appears to be picking up a good percentage of the Big Giant Head’s viewership in the last year. Though BO likes to attack Keith regularly and will ban any callers to his radio show who dare mention his name, Keith is carving out a solid place for himself in the otherwise anemic and lackluster MSNBC line up.
If you’re not a KO fan yet, I highly recommend that you give him a shot (if you don’t watch BO anyway, you won’t miss anything, since they’re on at the same time). Keith is one of the few newsmen (save perhaps David Gregory and David Shuster) in the MSM I have any respect for at this point, and I never miss his unique blend of wit, snark and spot on political savvy.
It certainly is encouraging, though, to learn that BO is losing in a key demographic… money talks, and if his ratings continue to suffer we might even see his head explode, get cancelled and be done with the noxious gasbag.
Great diary, Judy. Thanks!
If you have TiVo or something similar, do what I did.
Teach it to record The Daily Show, Countdown, and Stephen Colbert at least once a night each. Those ratings are furnished to the companies involved. You can turn reporting off if you know how and the idea of being included in something that’s about as personally identifying as the Census figures for your state bothers you, like it does at least one of my friends. But for now I WANT it on so they know I’m watching Olbermann and Stewart and Colbert and nothing at all on Fox.
Of course since most of what gets watched on the TiVo was programmed by the nine-year-old entertainment czar, TiVo undoubtedly thinks I’m a third-grader, and a girl. I guess in some odd sense they’d be at least partially right, but how they square a lineup that includes All Grown Up, Zoboomafoo, Countdown and Stargate SG-1 is beyond me.
I confess that I have been listening to Hannity, O’Reilly, Dr. Joel Wallach who is the founder of the new Amway that will be run by Conservative Right Wing Christians on their way to becoming pyramid scheme millionaires, and Neil Boortz woohoo what a nut job fruitycake about “government educated children” (and I think I can honestly make a truly fair assessment on this issue because I did finish up my high school education in a private school for many reasons but mostly because the Christian driver’s ed teacher at my public high school was sexually abusive to female students and it came down to both of us duking it out at a school board meeting and he was like 45 and I was almost 17 and due to my age and the condition of my frontal lobes I was lacking in the credibility department). I listen to them on the car radio delivering children to school usually. I just want to understand what it is that their audience is seeking. What is it that their listeners feel that they need that these nutbars seem to momentarily give them? All that I can come up with is that 30% of the population of the United States of America needs some serious serious damn therapy and it’s so bad that we probably ought to start some kind of welfare program to pay for them to get it! That Dr. Joel Wallach just slays me too……….and he’s going to sell his vitamins like candy to these people, and I’m all about vitamins and in the winter time I buy some pretty expensive Solar Ray vitamins because I just feel better then taking them. Damn though, do these people realize that they can and could have for years now buy all of the same damn stuff at any health food store for like half the price? His website just does not do his radio blather justice either, it is truly something that must be experienced to believe! Wait until you hear his “Bird Flu” advice and it involves his vitamins. Better stock up because the grocery stores will most likely be closed and riots and killing in the streets. Grab yer guns and eat yer vitamins and you’ll be swell! Oh Yeah, if the bird flu doesn’t happen it is because we all prayed and our prayers were answered but still buy the vitamins cuz it’s better to be safe than sorry.
i like your idea to great a welfare program focused on giving Republicans the therapy they so desperately need. Anyone that watches O’Reilly for anything other than comic value (i.e., believes a word he says) certainly needs therapy.
Personally, I think they should give each of them a stipend of $25,000 a year and Medicare health coverage and see if anyone of them can make it through a year living on that…I’d be willing to bet W would be one of the first to cry foul….
I used to watch O’Reilly so I could have more fun watching Keith Obermann, but OReilly is so toxic I must confess that I now take him exclusively through the filters of Colbert and Obermann. As funny as O’Reilly is just because of the arrogance of ignorance, Colbert and Oberman are just too damn good at parodying him and lampooning him.