Fox News cruising as usual, but Glenn Beck takes a little spill

Fox News Channel finishing first in the cable news ratings race is about as newsworthy as Bruce Springsteen closing a show with "Born to Run."

Nonetheless, that the News Corp.-owned cable channel has finished first in viewers and key demographics for 100 months in a row is something of an achievement. In prime time, Fox News averaged about 1.9 million viewers for the month of April. That beat the combined audiences of MSNBC, CNN and HLN.

Not everyone at Fox News is dancing on top of their desks. Glenn Beck has seen his audience fall almost 30% since the start of the year, from about 2.9 million viewers in January to 2.1 million in April.

While the Beck sensation may be slowing, the decline in his audience has hardly made a dent on the lead he enjoys for his 5 p.m. festival of emotions. His rivals should hold off a little on popping the Champagne..

Speaking of rivals, CNN's Larry King seems to have gotten no ratings boost for his recent personal troubles. His prime-time audience of 670,000 viewers was down 41% compared to April 2009. He was off almost 50% in the 25-54 demographic. He now routinely loses not only to Fox News, but to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and, in fact, is barely staying ahead of HLN's Joy Behar. Larry King is not the only King having a hard time at CNN. John King's 7 p.m. show is getting clobbered as well, losing almost half of Lou Dobbs' audience from a year ago. 

MSNBC, meanwhile, continues to pull away from CNN, beating it in viewers and demographics in prime time. Maddow in particular is seeing her fortunes rise, and she now beats her colleague Keith Olbermann among adults 25-54.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Glenn Beck. Credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press.

Comments

[Mack The Knife]

Beck's popularity hasn't decline. The weather is warmer along with daylight saving time, people are outdoors more often during the evening. All news programming from every channel will suffer a little decline in viewership during the summer months. You still have to admit that Beck's 2.1 million viewership during the warmer months is nothing to sneeze at. Beck's program alone beat CNN and MSNBC in all of their timeslots. Beck fans, don't forget to set the Tivo.

[Eddie]

Maybe the decline in his ratings is due to his a-s kissing of the blowhard Governor from the "BLOW HARD STATE" everyone knows as Texas! There's nothing good that can come from being so tight with the most arrogant & delusional Governor in the nation, Rick {the prick} Perry! After all, everyone knows that a man is judged by the company he keeps!

[greg]

Name 1 time beck lied on his show. Be specific. I challenge you. If he reports nothing but lies that should be easy.

[Dmerrin10000]

This is interesting and unexpected-- I've assumed Beck had a limited shelf life but I didn't expect to see the decline begin so soon. I'd wondered what would happen with Beck's entire approach to his show once the economy began showing growth, and even though it's clearly been growing for the last six or so months, I'd assumed it would take until the summer until the realization set in that the trend is positive.

I wonder about a few things, though-- Beck seems to draw a certain number of viewers from the crowd that does not agree with him but is curious about HIM-- for me, it took about three weeks of watching him until I felt there was nothing new to see, though it hardly seems he could have that many people watching him for that reason. If I had to guess, his drop off is attributable to at least these two above factors and, I'd guess, a certain number of people who are his ideological allies but are perhaps serious enough as people to be bothered by some of his extreme positions and also those who realize that though he may sometimes make interesting conservative points, his overall message is intellectually flimsy.

He'll certainly keep his core audience, but I doubt he'll ever experience growth again.

[greg]

Who watches any of this phony left/right mainstream propaganda anyway?

[Ed Hayden]

Glenn Beck does not really endorse the Republicans or the Democrats. He is a libertarian, obviously a conseritive of whom stands for the values and priciples of which this republic was framed from resulting into our Constitution and Bill of rights. Preserving these freedoms, and liberty's that the costitution provides is not a radical concept or idea. This should be what the people should be advocating is the restoration of these priciples. Socializing America, taking away your rights and freedoms and allowing the Governments to dictate to you a new social order by regulation as they see fit for you is not what this Country was based upon. I think Glenn beck has the truth and historical facts and historians to support him on these truths. Before you make any coments you might go to the library and check out some books ob the purpose of the Early explorers of america, The Mayflower Pact, The Federalist papers, read the historical facts of our national founders. They forbided our nation in becoming to what it is now, they fought against this same government dominance over there lives of that is liken unto England over the colonisists. Thus a revolution... This coming election is all about restoring our country to the priciples in our Constitution ot Socializing it unto something of a European form of Government. With a minimal amount of research, you will not like the soccial plans thsi government has for you...

[Mher]

FOX is for the stupid.

CNN news has been made so simple, it's only good for children. It only takes a minute to get tired of Rick and Wolf...

MSNBC is boriiiiing.

The only normal news program is Newshour on PBS.

The state of the news media in the US is a very sad one ...

[EastHollywood]

Greg, in 2008 when Beck suffered a bad reaction to medication during a hospital stay, he called it "the nightmare that is our health care system." But by 2009 when he was rallying the people who buy his many products, he calls it "the best health care system of the world." So either he's lying or he's pandering to you. Which one do you want to admit?

[Kevin]

If you want to watch endless, sensationalized coverage of crimes against pretty white girls/women and news about Tiger Woods, CNN Headline News is the place to go. And the news about Tiger Woods is how he wronged a pretty white woman. Sheesh.

[Dmerrin10000]

Here's a few possible answers to some of the questions raised on this thread.

First, though I'd say the media overall tilts a little to the left, I don't think it's really been fair to speak of a "liberal media" in the last ten years. Before that, I'd say it seemed fairly biased in that direction, apart from the WSJ and talk radio, most media was left leaning, and there wasn't much to balance it. When Fox news came on the scene, it had a genuine argument about that, additionally, at that time, I think Fox did a better job of at least trying to make it's "fair and balanced" line a reality. Even then, it slanted right, but to me, that was okay, though I'm a liberal, I saw and still see value in there being a source of information that is given via a conservative POV; after all, conservatism is embraced as a way of seeing the world by tens of millions of Americans. Now, I think it's a bit difficult to characterize the media as an entity as leaning in either direction-- there are probably more reporters and outlets that still favor the left wing viewpoint, but conservative outlets attract so many consumers that I think it's probably unfair to say the media itself is biased.

I wouldn't say Glenn Beck is a liar, because I think he believes the things he says. I just don't think he has much interest in, or even knowledge of how to study a situation in the comprehensive manner most serious people consider necessary before forming a judgment about a thing that is the slightest bit complicated. Rather, he seems to be entirely in the grip of his emotions and has latched onto the conservative view of things, and is able to view pretty much the entire world only from that angle. As such, he twists virtually anything he ever talks about into an argument in support of these ultimately simplistic ideas he is so dependent on believing. At times, his subject matter may actually back up the conservative ideology, but it often doesn't, and since his approach to reality is so inherently limited, he often ends up sounding plain ridiculous because there is no credible way to make a conservative argument out of whatever it is he's talking about. I don't know if the "Obama hates white people" is the best example, but it's the one that comes to mind for me-- it's a conclusion so intellectually unsupported by any facts I've heard him cite, and is also so intuitively ridiculous that it makes it difficult to take Beck seriously. Not that I'd think so if that comment was the only one of its kind I'd ever heard Beck make-- but when I was watching him a few months ago, I'd frequently-- at least once a show-- hear him draw an inference from something he'd read about the founding of the nation, or about some contemporary issue, and have the same reaction. That, combined with the frequency with which he began his show telling everyone how important it was to tivo that particular show, as though there was something so important it should not be missed-- like, his shows a while back when he was trying to talk about fascism and socialism, for example-- left me thinking I could watch him for a year and never learn anything of value from him. And whereas I frequently learn from other conservatives, O'Reilly and Will are two examples, Beck just seems moronic. Not only do I learn nothing from him but I am 100% sure that in a conversation with him, there is nothing I could teach him, because he doesn't operate at the level of the intellect-- as I suggested above, with him, anything intellectual is a mere tool to be put to providing what he (and clearly, much of his audience) consider to be sound support of ideas which are based fully in his emotions.

He was fascinating to watch for a few weeks, just because I'd never really imagined that someone like him existed or could exist, but after that few weeks had passed he very suddenly-- within a day or two at the most-- became totally boring and I doubt I could ever watch him for an entire hour again.

[Joey Fowler]

Glenn has grown to be more of a cry baby, throw away the chalk board and the hot line and get back to basics. The ones that got him where he was. I quite him because of the ranting and raving, Joey Fowler Garland, Texas

[Sean]

Typical Liberal reporting. Not only was Glenn on vacation, the time change has people outside not watching TV. I would bet EVERYONE's rating for that time slot is down this month.

[Mike]

Just read these posts. The left is an angry group. Hatred people wishing ill will on others. Get beyond your vile hate my friends. Learn to love and value the people in it. Come to terms with the fact that our country's development and success comes from the core of conservative, Christian values and yes, CAPITALISM. A pretty decent blueprint for life. Government was structured to be for the people, by the people. In no way, shape or form was it intended to control the people and be feared by the people. Much of that is eroding and political correctness is the root of this evil. Stop hiding behind the label "racism". Don't stand for it but stop hiding behind it. Instead, start that business you always wanted, work hard, help your neighbor in need, carry your gun, voice your concerns, go to church, stay well and visit the best doctors on the planet, keep ILLEGAL aliens out of this country (easy now, I know you are screaming the "racist" thing again. Remember they are ILLEGAL), call a terrorist a.....terrorist, never forget 9/11 and have a hamburger. No worries my friends, if we follow these simple steps, America will remain that shining city on a hill. Cherish what you have. LOVE your country, LOVE your neighbor and give me a hug!

[Rob]

I watch Beck daily... it is good to hear someone voicing my thoughts.

Come November, mark my beverage as Tea.

[Right Winger]

Rachel Maddow is a joke, I would rather poke sharp sticks in my eyes than watch the garbage fest over at MSLSD. You need help Alice, you've just had some kind of mushroom and your mind is moving slow.

[Curtis]

Hmmm..... so the sheen is starting to fade on the Howard Beal, oops!, Um, I mean Glen Beck Program. I wonder, does Glen know how the movie ends? If we start to see a studio audience.......

[ss794]

Stop getting your news from Media Matters. Beck is beating the competition and has more viewers than MSN and CNN. Maybe if YOU, MSN, and CNN actually showed the people the truth than we would read your paper or watch those channels.

Where were you and MSM on the CCX - Gore, Goldman Sachs scandel. You don't report stories like these and WE don't trust you. If we want to read your paper it will only be for tabloid trash. The National Enquirer is more reliable than MSM (they broke John Edwards).

[TonyD]

When does Rachel Maddow ever bring on guests who disagree with her? Her whole show is about trashing people who disagree with Obama and other Dem Libs.

[David Shovan]

I read a lot of comments about Beck telling lies and misinformation but no examples. Also people attacking his past but what has that got to do with anything? Do any of you question the past of the president, the man-child? Do any of you know anything about the climate exchange that will be making Al Gore a multi-millionaire while energy companies pay higher carbon credits. Where do you think that money will come from? The customers,, NAH. The drones that still believe in this Regime and will follow anything they do just because they have a D after their name get what they deserve.

[mark]

I hope this decline is a result of Beck's viewership finally waking up to the fact that he is nothing more than an actor playing a role in order to make enormous amounts of money. He has no real concern for the well-being of the country or anyone living here. Beck is an expert manipulator, riling up the conservative fringe with his fake histrionics.

If you don't believe it, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9j_SWbpOH0

[C]

During a month when he took a week off, Glenn Beck's television numbers slipped a bit. That's news?

[Mary Blattner]

I wander how many readers have left your paper with all your left wing diatribe.If once in a while you could report on the things that are happening in the Gov like for instance-----The Czars-Seiu-Van Jones-Chicago ClimateExchange-Puerto Rico Progressives-George Sorus I could go on and on but I don't want to bore you with triveal issues.

[donald]

Liberal Media: Maddow, KO, Shultz, Rhodes and Democracy Now

Non-Liberal media: Will, Hume, Gregory, Schieffer, Kondrake, Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, Levin, Savage, Schlessinger, Hewitt, Ingraham, Bennett, Prager, Muller, Medved, O'Reilly, Boortz, Buchanan, Arthur, Scarborough, Gallagher, Brooks, Frum, Carlson, Gigot, McLaughlin, Crowley, Barnes, Kudlow, Fund, Morris, etc. etc.

"The Liberal Media" is the largest LIE in America. It is a shame.

Posted by: MGBYG

[ss794]

Stop getting your "news" from Soros funded Media Matters. Glen Beck was number 1 for cable news ALL last week. Try actually being a journalist.

[Doug]

I am not here to standup or knock down Beck, however I will explain why I watch him less. I was a CNN / MSNBC person, never watched fox. Then when I saw what was going on with the economy through my companys operations, I started to watch more news. When I saw and read the stuff Hidden in the Stimulus bill, I watched the news more. When the bailouts which I still think are ileagle occured, I watched more. But it was obvious that CNN/MSNBC did not see what I and other mgmt saw. By chance I watched fox and they were on the same page as what I believed. I watched it everynite !
Now, I feel that the only way to fix our government is a clean sweep of BOTH sides. I have served my country, I have worked my whole life without handouts, I always paid my taxes, etc. But I am disgusted with the people, all of them, calling themselves MY Government.
I only watch the news and glen Beck 1x a week now because it turns my stomach to see people stand by and let their country go down the tubes, and hide behind being busy or politically correct language. I will vote them out, then when things become normal again, resume watching the stations that brought truth to the screen. And vote with my dollar, to get rid of all the companys in media who only gave partial information (same as lying), and did not give full coverage to all sides. Once I find that I have been Lied to either directly, or by with holding of information, There off my list. Life is to short.