We should have the October ratings for cable networks today or tomorrow, but the NY Times got an early look, and it’s bad news for CNN.
CNN, which invented the cable news network more than two decades ago, will hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programs in October, finishing fourth – and last – among the cable news networks with the audience that all the networks rely on for their advertising.
The official monthly numbers will be finalized at 4 p.m. Monday and will include results from Friday. CNN executives conceded that will not change the competitive standing for the month. CNN will still be last in prime time.
That means CNN’s programs were behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but even its own sister network HLN (formerly Headline News.) That was the first time CNN had finished that poorly with its prime-time shows.
via - NYTimes.com.
Maybe CNN will start reporting the news. Lost the people did you CNN? What does that tell you about your brand of reporting? If your not reporting the truth people are going to turn you off! Try the truth, it works!
FOX will always be number one as long as you stay on the same path.
so… fox news is very conservative, msnbc has turned very liberal, and cnn has chosen to be very retarded.
i guess what do you expect when your figurehead is wolf blitzer, a guy who has the intellect of a 13 year old.
Will be interesting to see if the article points out Fox’s dominance of the ratings or just that CNN is the “loser”.
Oh my, lots of red faces in Atlanta today I’m guessing.
The problem with CNN, IMO, is that they’re crafting themselves as the destination for “hard news, no opinion”.
Yet, looking at the line-up for this week’s “Larry King Live”, I see “Hulk Hogan”, “Sweat Lodge Exclusive”, and a ghost show on Friday.
Meanwhile at 10pm, Anderson Cooper is too “Hollywood-ish” now, with all his subbing on “Regis & Kelly”, endless fluff pieces (especially near the end) and no more of that raw, “on the scene” reporting he was so praised for in the past.
The only decent show on CNN is “Campbell Brown”, but she’s facing the 3 titans of cable news (BOR, Olbermann, Grace) – so there’s no way she’ll be able to make any decent headway.
So I don’t really know who CNN is for, or what they stand for – are they a “news-lite” network, an opinion network, or what…?
When you have a guy making up quotes that Rush Limbaugh had said and they weren’t true,but never apoligized to Rush for it, you have them also check facting Obamas achievements from a skit on SNL, that tells you what kind of network your dealing with, let them and MSPMS keep fighting for whatever viewers they have as FOX continues to dominate by light years.
CNN needs to get just get back to dishing out news. The fact that HLN has better numbers now means that people want one of three things – Republican/conservative drivel (Faux News), Democratic/liberal stuff (MSNBC) and just plane news (HLN). CNN is trying to be half E! and half who knows what. Personally, they need to watch BBC World News for a few hours and figure out the domestic operations.
CNN International is still very good, but they still stick to pretty hard news and the fluff stuff is usually only human interest pieces, not celebrity gossip crap.
The botton line is CNN is boring
@ Richard
HLN primetime is not “news” at ALL – so that doesn’t prove that viewers want straight news.
CNN – The Most ‘UNTRUSTED’ Name in News.
MSNBC – The Place for ‘OBAMA’ Politics.
Fox News- Fair,Balance and Unafraid.
My day will never end without watching fox news everyday.
cnn is a last place network because its full of drones who do what ever the TelePrompTer tells them they are not real people the follow the old way of news casting bland no opinion no feelings no emotions their middle of the road and msnbc has swerved left and fox has swerved right and both have surpassed cnn
—————————-
FOX News is the DEVIL….. That entire network can burn in HELL.
When the final numbers come in it will be interesting to see if Fox takes a hit at all. Everyone else is surfing in the toilet so it will be interesting to see if they pick up on the idea that news isn’t necessarily nodding your head at the administration’s propaganda, but reporting info from alternate sources…like what they’re saying IN THEIR OWN WORDS in books and lectures but don’t expect it to be put on the news. That’s what Fox’s commentators have covered, resulting in sizable ratings while everyone else ignores it.
Videotaping or reporting what people publicly say when it’s not on a government handout…someone could get ratings out of that! Kudos to Glenn Beck for ignoring Balloon Boy.
CNN could care less about their numbers, as long as they do the bidding of the DEAR LEADER he will take care of them.
I never watch CNN. I can deal with the in-your-face bias of Fox News and MSNBC, but I can’t stand the veiled bias on CNN that they try to pass off as objectivity. Out of the three, CNN is the most dishonest.
Wow Jack, did FOX do something to you? Like tell the truth?
I think CNN is losing because they try to startle the middle and offer no opinions. The Right loves Fox News, the Left loves MSNBC. CNN needs to fix what they are missing, if they truly want to remain “in the middle” of politics maybe they should start opinion programming too, but instead of having all Right wing or all Left wing hosts, mix it up. One show with a Left leaning host, one with a Right leaning host, and One with 2 Host and let them battle it out.
CNN’s approach to staying in the middle without opinion works during Presidential Election Coverage, but we don’t elect a President every week.
I think the ratings trends are easily understood:
Americans want the press to be a “watchdog” over their government, not a “lapdog”, no matter the political leaning of the administration.
During Bush, CNN was comfortable and confident in playing the watchdog role.
During Obama, CNN has been comfortable and confident in playing the lapdog role.
The ratings go to the watchdog, not the lapdog.
Fox News is a Hot Topic for your torch, pitchfork and teabag needs
anyone else catch Shep Smith getting outed on HBO in the Outrage doc?
At this rate, CNN could move to China and nobody will notice. What better place to cover more news about China than being there? Make Ted Turner proud.
CNN has been boring for a long long time; that’s just one reason I stopped watching a long time ago.
I think Jon Stewart’s blasting of the network pretty much says it all. They don’t follow up, they don’t ask hard questions, they don’t function as JOURNALISTS. They simply allow either side to parrot the respective party line of any given issue, without any analysis or challenging of any talking point.
If I want that, I can just go read the partisan press releases.
We only get CNN and HLN so I have never seen that other 2 networks. I have CNN on a lot and alternate between that and CTV a Canadian news network. I would love to get Fox news just to see the what all the fuss is about.
CNN has definitely gone down in quality over the years. I HATE opinion journalism. Present me with the facts and stop trying to sensationalize every story. Lose guys like Rick Sanchez who just try to do this. Get Anderson Cooper off of show bus and talking about the idiotic Goselins and get him doing hard news again.
Seems like old time news guys have gone the way of the Dodo bird which is too bad.
Also I am so sick of CNN doing a special like Black or Latina in America or about Iraq and then saturating their programming with it. News junkies like me just get sick of it and I really wish that I had more news options on TV.
It is obviously showing in the ratings and they are going to have to wake up.
I’m really, really sick of people referring to Fox as “the truth”. “Truth” has become a euphemism for Conservative bias, intellectual laziness, and downright Un-American journalism.
Folks, truth – real truth – is tried and tested and true. Untruth is made up, spun, and refit to whatever view of the US the viewer wants to see. This is not truth, people. This is untruth. As in, lies. Spin.
No one would disagree that Fox News reports from a biased view. No one disagrees that Fox has dubious motives and even more dubious journalism. As such, Fox News has no right to call itself a News organization. Opinion? Yes, absolutely. Do they represent the opinions of many Americans? Certainly. But News is a different beast, and we should be treating them in the same way we treat the National Enquirer.
That said, CNN has done a horrible job in the past ten years too. They’ve answered Fox’s pundits with holograms, and fact checking SNL sketches for real journalism. If CNN goes back to the basics and starts reporting real news again they’ll win back countless millions of viewers disillusioned with CNN and angry at Fox. They can easily get Conservatives and Liberals to watch good old-fashioned reporting with the tools of the 21st century, and in an era so divided, appealing to both sides with honest, investigative journalism can only bring their ratings up.
(Steps off soap box)
It costs money to do real reporting. It takes time to do real reporting. Cash and time are in rare supply in the world of the 24 Hour News Beasts. They need cheap stories that can be “reported” around the clock. That is why they love being able to plunk a reporter at a location for a few days. Michael Jackson’s death was a goldmine of cheap news. Even cheaper is the arguing talking heads. Opinion is practically free. A network can interview the people involved in a situation or it can drag out the same pundits to mouth off about a story they merely read about via the AP wire.
CNN has become the most pointless name in news.
The format of CNN international and BBC is way better, actual interesting global news, reports, things other than strictly continental US issues. They dumb it down so much for the US audiences and i just do not know why. It’s crap!
Larry King interviews only reality show “stars” and other insignificant hollwood types, Rick Sanchez is so bad it’s funny, Lou Dobbs is a fish out of water, Blitzer really is utterly clueless, and Amanpour is a egotistical condescending witch.
CNN deserves these ratings, I would rather get my news from Jon Stewart and Colbert.
when you really, really, really stink, there’s just no hiding it.
Again, I suggest people click on my name for my solution to CNN’s troubles.
Compelling personalities get ratings, period. And, CNN has hung its prime time hat on the trio of… Larry King, Anderson Cooper, and Campbell Brown?
‘K.
They do have some actual talent in different dayparts – Kyra Phillips is absolutely great – when they loosen things up on occasion during her daytime shift and she gets to show a little personality it’s really unique and keeps you watching.
They should try her in prime time with some kind of a new, innovative, fast-paced format that would let her and maybe some of the other correspondents be themselves. Something that’s informative, but also unpredictable and even a little bit fun at times. Maybe something that has an after-hours feel to it.
I guess it’s hard for giant corporate commitees to come up with new ideas because they can’t all agree on what changes to make so they ultimately change nothing.
What annoys me the most with CNN news is that absolutely “Everything” is “BREAKING NEWS”, when the content that follows absolutlely is nothing like a recent event, or a breaking news update, or just the same old, same old rehashed news story from 4 or more hours earlier in the day. And Wolf Blizter’s hype that begins each Situation Room – “best political team, EXTRAOOOORRRDONNAARRRY” blah-blah-blah. Nothing that follows meets the hype.
I’m sorry for those of you who really believe that FOX news is really a news network. You might want to consider putting your tinfoil hats away and going out into the fresh air once in a while.
Put Chuck Roberts in Anderson Cooper’s spot and things might start happening—–he’s the best newscaster on television.
The problem with CNN is two things:
First, Their reporting is obviously left leaning bias. But most on the left choose MSNBC over CNN. Plus, with only 20% of Americans being liberal (gallup poll), its not a very large audiance. Most independance have left CNN and went to FOX.
Secondly, CNN covers stories that most people don’t care about (like fact checking SNL, having celebrity guest). I stop watching CNN last year with their coverage of Sarah Palin. They played SNL w/ Tina Fey on loop runs. When one of their commenters said would you rather listen to an Sarah Palin speak, John Mccain speak, or stick a needle in your eye? I quit watching. WTH was that?
CNN fact checked an SNL skit. What more need we say?
I am moderate, independent voter (voted for both Bush and Obama) and CNN is just boring.
I think, FOX while opinionated can be quite fun to watch at times, and so can MSNBC…. although MSNBC is by far the most biased cable news network.
To George Garner –
Everyone does not agree that Fox News is biased. In fact, it is no where near as biased as CNN or MSNBC. Just look at the numbers of negative and positive stories that were reported for both presidential candidates-
“…a study by the Pew Research Center showed that 40 percent of Fox News stories on Obama in the last six weeks of the campaign were negative. Similarly, 40 percent of Fox News’ stories on Obama’s Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, were negative.
On CNN, by contrast, there was a 22-point disparity in the percentage of negative stories on Obama (39 percent) and McCain (61 percent). The disparity was even greater at MSNBC, according to Pew, where just 14 percent of Obama stories were negative, compared to a whopping 73 percent of McCain stories — a spread of 59 points. ”
Pew and other studies have shown compelling evidence that Fox is more centered than any other cable news outlet. The fact that most news outlets have a liberal bent means that when Fox News comes along with a more centered, un-biased view, it is often misconstrued as being to the right.
To all you other bleeding Liberals –
Facts are Facts. You can p*ss and moan all you want about Fox. But the fact is that people generally watch what reinforces the beliefs they already have. What does that say about your liberal viewpoint? Enjoy what you have now because REAL CHANGE IS A COMING FOR SURE. Being in denial does not help your cause.
Nasser Ejaz: Thank you for posting that in regard to the previous posts. It seems like people want to shout that Fox isn’t news when Fox is the only group reporting on what Obama’s appointees say IN THEIR OWN WORDS (respect for mass murdering Mao, ideas about forced sterilization, respect for Venezuela’s destruction of its free press and removal of private property, declarations of communist support, etc)…if it isn’t news to see video of what political appointees have to say, and quotes from what leaders have written about their future plans in their own books, what is?
Sure Fox has a lot of opinion. So does the BBC, they just state it without passion. British Navy commanders banned the BBC from their ships because the “news” matched too closely with enemy propaganda.
In fact, the idea of a “fair” media was created when it was recognized there would be limited radio bandwidth, and therefore the government wanted to ensure the limited bandwidth would appeal to everyone. It’s an artifact of the 20th century, nothing more.
Fox just makes money off it since they have so many people from different sides of the issue, even if their main opinion hosts are conservative.
Fox “News” is an entertainment channel. It really should not be compared to actual news outlets.
The idea that Fox is “Fair and Balanced” is ironic, not factual. It is amusing, but everyone knows that if you want to hear Republican talking points 24 hours a day all you need to do is turn the dial to Fox. It is downmarket talk show radio-esque entertainment programming for ideologues…
That being said, in a nation of 300+ million, the fact that Fox only gets 2 million viewers a night is very surprising. You’d think that there were more extreme right wingers out there. I guess the party is shrinking quicker than even the experts predicted…
The reality is the majority of Americans get their news from actual news outlets like NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, BBC News, PBS News et al. and then there is the fringe minority on both sides clinging to manufactured, regurgitated, overanalyzed talking points on cable news.
p.s. I wonder how Fox “News” does in the 18-34 demo? I am guessing horribly being it is the oldest skewed cable channel in existence…
I think people are turning off CNN because their boring
MSNBC is mean, nasty and treat their viewers like stupid children.
MSNBC = hate network
FOX does not talk down to their viewers. And no hate.
Oh ya one more thing:
All MSNBC does is teach how to hate people who they don’y agree with.
FOX is teaching people what is happening to us and our Country.
I watch all the News Networks and the people at MSNBC are sick in the head!
Break out the champagne glasses! In our PC world third is as good as first and the already delusional CNN will likely continue their smug, biased and boring reporting until they close their doors.
> I watch all the News Networks and the people at MSNBC are sick in the head!
In other words, you disagree with the news they are reporting and would rather have an opinion network echo your personal views. Let’s call a spade, a spade. People watch Fox “News” to hear a conservative spin on daily events, not to hear news…
As poll after poll shows, Fox News viewers are the least informed cable news watchers, i.e. believe rumors, falsehoods and outright lies. Why? Because Fox “News” is not a news network and they’ll run with any story or innuendo be it Death Panels, Obama is a Muslim, Birther Movement etc. They also will never correct falsehoods or attempt to quash misinformation when having it out there fits their agenda.
Heck, their President Roger Ailes is talking about running for President (obviously as a righty) and the network has its own “movement” that it incessantly promotes, i.e. Tea Parties.
So, enjoy Fox “News” but don’t insult your own intelligence by pretending it is actually news. Enjoy it for what it is, right wing entertainment.
Fauxman, I’m pretty sure Fox News does pretty good in the 18-35 age bracket. Bill Oreilly’s show alone beats both CNN and MSNBC’s TOTAL VIEWERS number. I think it’s safe to say that would mean Fox’s numbers are pretty good with 18-35 year olds.
ZNN, could you name any of those polls? Because Pew research shows that thats not true.
Oh, and why does MSNBC think that by insulting viewers it will increase their ratings? Honestly, Olbermann has to know that he will not get a single viewer to move from FOX to him after calling them “tea-baggers, racist, tinfoil-hatters, and conspiracy theorist”. Now thats just low.
Here is one:
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/08/20/fox-viewers-more-likely-to-believe-death-panel-myth.aspx
As for insulting viewers, let’s be honest – if you are a racist you are not watching MSNBC anyway. If you believe in crazy conspiracy theories about Obama being born in Kenya, you are not watching MSNBC anyway. If you are going to the Fox News/Republican party sponsored tea parties, you are not watcing MSNBC anyway.
MSNBC has no reason to try to appeal to viewers that would never watch in the first place.
Fox News does not do well in the 18-29 age bracket, I promise you. Only 8% of people born after 1980 approve of the Republican party, so I highly doubt they would get their news from a Republican “news” source.
FNC’s median-viewer age is unsurprisingly cable TV’s oldest at 64. So when you think of Fox, think of elderly people shaking their fists at the TV as Glenn Beck sniffs a bit more glue and comes up with some wacky theory as to how Obama’s grandmothers pet butterfly in Hawaii caused a spiraling fractal change in wind patterns which in effect caused Hurricane Katrina…
I did not say that, but thanks for the laugh.
I said that racists would probably not watch MSNBC. I did not say by definition, not watching MSNBC makes you a racist.
Sorry if that type of complex logic is beyond your ability to comprehend.
The reason I made such a statement is because if MSNBC is as pro-biased as all the Fox News viewers say toward an African American president, no self respecting KKK members would be caught dead watching…
Isn’t it funny in defending Fox “News” you took my post and distorted it to fit your agenda? Ironic, no?
Any one with a brain and knowledge of basic civics knows that Fox “News” is for morons. Ditto heads who fawn for Sean Hannity, Bill O, Rush and their ilk always watch and listen to neo-cons and those who skew everything way to the right…regardless of facts. MSNBC, CNN, regional cable news, NPR, the internet news sites, news magazines and even newspapers (yes, newspapers) and their respective web sites divi up the rest of the total news and information seeking audience. Progressives and generally speaking better educated people split their news seeking time across multiple sources of information and platform. Makes for better informed people.
It’s the same tired old line day after day: Faux News is not real news, just lies, blah, blah, blah yet you libs never seem to put forth any of your own facts to combat topics on Fox. All you do is bash and name call. Van Jones is a Communist in his own words. Anita Dunn is a Mao-lover in her own words. Cass Sunstein and Holdren wrote about putting sterilants in drinking water and forced abortions for population control. Your beloved Messiah, Obama, stated numerous times he is for a single-payer health care system then this summer said he is not – both instances on video tape. Where are your “facts” refuting any of this? Why not for once support your argument with documentation not just a quote you read on some unsourced website somewhere that doesn’t exist. Oh wait that’s right. Debating is just for us stupid, hate-monger, right-wing extremist, racist, war-monger, gun-toting, crazy, bible-thumping, neo-Nazi, intolerant, anti-American, whack-job conservatives.
To Nassar:
You almost, ALMOST had me believing you were a rational, fair minded person who wanted to seek real truth. I was about to commend you for bringing up an interesting point and then have a good, fair, truthful discussion about what that meant for the election and for cable news.
Then you said this: “To all you other bleeding Liberals – … You can p*ss and moan all you want about Fox. … What does that say about your liberal viewpoint? Enjoy what you have now because REAL CHANGE IS A COMING FOR SURE. Being in denial does not help your cause.”
Sigh.
Then Burn-E wrote: “[T]he idea of a ‘fair’ media was created when it was recognized there would be limited radio bandwidth, and therefore the government wanted to ensure the limited bandwidth would appeal to everyone. It’s an artifact of the 20th century, nothing more.”
Sigh again. Wrong Burn-E. Just wrong. I have a history degree. And you’re wrong. I’m just sayin’.
So to both of you, thanks for reinforcing my point. You just spun a conservative bias together with false facts and called it “truth”.
All I’m suggesting is that combining liberal and conservative viewers together on a network dedicated to real truth and real reporting could be a ratings boon. Older viewers flock to Fox, sure, and they’ll die soon. Intelligent viewers have given up on CNN/MSNBC in favor of BBC, PBS, etc. Why can’t we have both? An intelligent, factual, unattached network that works to find real truths. Wouldn’t that be a ratings killer? And yes, Corey3rd, that would cost a lot of money (thank you for the intelligent response, btw), but I would argue that the ratings boon would offset said cost. You’ll always have your Michael Jackson stories, and certainly a new network would cover those too, but when current networks are slicing viewers across party lines a new network that unites viewers could take away from MSNBC and Fox and kill them in the ratings.
Just sayin’.
Any objective analysis reveals the “progressive” title as self-congratulation by regressives. No intelligent individual trusts or respects the Left (such as MSNBC and the BBC); a very sad lot who squander their lives marinating in self-pity, paranoia, confusion and xenophobia. So we’re lucky to have Fox News. Imagine what it must be like to live the “progressive” Olbermann’s life, that of a horrendously insecure and peevish character, terrified of everything and everyone and miserably frightened every minute of every day that he will be discovered for the fraud he really is…
Churchill had it precisely right: “When a person is young and knows nothing and is not liberal, he has no heart; when he is older and more experienced and is not conservative, he has no head.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Fox “news” is a conservative inspired entertainment channel with hot chicks, wack job “fresh out of rehab” analysts and sensationalized TMZ like headlines. If you enjoy it, good for you. Just don’t mistake it as fair and balanced. Don’t mistake it as factual. And most importantly, don’t mistake it for news.
That being said, I bid this conversation adieu. It is not like the Fox fanboys are all of a sudden going to get the rational people in this conversation to start agreeing that Fox has real reporters that bring unbiased hard hitting news to the masses. I mean, some of us might be liberal but that doesn’t mean we’re high.
If you watch both networks, you’ll see that both MSNBC and Fox News do newscasts all day.
If you consider Fox News talk radio because it does opinion programming at night, you must also categorize MSNBC as talk radio because it also does opinion programming at night.
Did anyone see Rick Sanchez support that Inn Keeper in Taos, NM? He said the owner was not racest, but was making a good business decision when asking those answering the Inn telephones to use simple Anglican first names.
I’ve watched all the different newscasts there is on cable and CNN is by far the most realistic of them all. CNN has the people their reporting on in the news room or on the big screen. So my question is how can CNN be accused of not reporting the truth when their guest are there discussing it? Coming from the first person??????????????? Rating “MIGHT” be actuate, be the truth is spoken especially coming from the first person discussions. How can it be false reporting??????
Fox is kicking all your a$$es.. What part of that do you not understand? People are waking up and want the truth.
CNN is NOT reporting the truth.
“BE #1 IN 30 DAYS FOR REAL DUMMIES!!!!”
Book says…
Investigate….
1.ALL of the Obama mafia
REPORT THE TRUTH.
then watch your ratings hit the roof…
or…..
keep doing just as you have and disappear…. I can get more news from….goggle…than from any MSM.