Year to year MSNBC sees smallest decreases of any network in total viewers

Interesting. My guess would be that MSNBC has more loyal viewers.

MSNBC saw the smallest decreases of any network in total viewers. Year-to-year, MSNBC is down -6% in total viewers for both total day and primetime.

MSNBC was #3 in total day/demo viewers behind FNC and HLN. The channel was also #3 in total day/total viewers behind FNC and CNN. MSNBC topped CNN each hour between 6pm-12amET.

"Morning Joe" was the second most watched morning program in total viewers, but struggled in the demo averaging 115K, the fewest of the four.

(snip)

"The Ed Show" was one of the few cable news programs to grow in both total viewers (+25%) and demo viewers (+4%) year-to-year and was the number two program in its time slot. Also, the 5pmET "Hardball" topped "The Situation Room" for the first time in total viewers.

Both "Countdown" and "The Rachel Maddow Show" were down in the demo year-to-year, but Maddow's program did grow slightly (+2%) in total viewers. For the first time since 2000, MSNBC, which airs a replay of "Countdown," topped CNN at 10pmET in total viewers. MSNBC was also #2 in total viewers at 11pmET, which hasn't happened since Maddow's show premiered in 2008.

Though Olbermann's program saw year-to-year decreases (-13% total viewers/-30% demo), 8pmET "Countdown" moved back into the cable news top 10, finishing 10th among cable news programs in total viewers. "Maddow" was #11.

Video- Robert Gibbs on press corps, tv show briefings

Yes Robert, that's a dead giveaway.

O'Reilly Factor 12th most viewed cable show

Funny, I never hear of O'Reilly touting these numbers. Even Burn Notice gets more eyes. Kind of puts it in perspective, especially with network news routinely getting over 8 mil a show.

Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of March 1-7. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:

1. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), Disney, 4 million homes, 6.31 million viewers.

2. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10:30 p.m.), History, 3.86 million homes, 5.34 million viewers.

3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.74 million homes, 5.52 million viewers.

4. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.53 million homes, 5.11 million viewers.

5. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10 p.m.), History, 3.52 million homes, 4.93 million viewers.

6. "ICarly" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.5 million homes, 5.33 million viewers.

7. "NCIS" (Sunday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.43 million homes, 4.8 million viewers.

8. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.37 million homes, 4.51 million viewers.

9. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.14 million homes, 4.32 million viewers.

10. "NCIS" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.09 million homes, 4.25 million viewers.

11. "NCIS" (Sunday, 6 p.m.), USA, 3.04 million homes, 4.08 million viewers.

12. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.01 million homes, 4.02 million viewers.

13. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.97 million homes, 3.91 million viewers.

14. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.956 million homes, 3.99 million viewers.

15. "ICarly" (Saturday, 12 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.955 million homes, 4.14 million viewers.

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Video- Best New Pundits

Wow, I almost feel sorry for them if their "best" are Amanda Carpenter and Ross Douhat...

Short and not-so-sweet: Cable Tee Vee bankrupt of economists, but not punditiots

By GottaLaff

First we learned that there is a shortage of Democratic pundits on the Tee Vee Machine. Now we see that there's a shortage of economists discussing the, you know, economy:

In a new report, Media Matters adds that economists have been largely absent from the debate on these TV programs:

[A] Media Matters for America review of the Sunday talk shows and 12 cable news programs from January 25 through February 8 found that during 139 1/2 hours of programming on Sunday mornings and weekday afternoons and evenings, of 460 total guest appearances in discussions about the economic recovery legislation and debate in Congress, only 25 were made by economists — a mere 5 percent. [...]

Matt Yglesias notes, “[I]t’s been striking to me watching things how often you’ll have what amounted to an anchor talking to a political reporter about a substantive policy question neither of them understood.”

In short, there is a shortage of expertise. That's been given short shrift, as opposed to the usual gang of punditiots, and that's the long and short of it.

REPORT: GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 To 1 In Stimulus Debate On Cable News

By GottaLaff

Paddy and I were just discussing the glut of Republican talking heads v. the m.i.a. Democratic pundits/representatives, as was Ady in Comments. No surprise here except, oops,the Democrats hold the majority in both houses of Congress and have a Democratic president in the White House.

As Paddy and I recalled, when Bush was in office, it was all Republicans all the time. We both assumed that now that a Democrat is in office, we'd be better represented on the Tee Vee Machine.

Silly us:

Even though President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package. [...]

The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:

In total, from 6 AM on Monday to 4 PM on Wednesday, the networks have hosted Republican lawmakers 51 times and Democratic lawmakers only 24 times. Surprisingly, Fox News came the closest to offering balance, hosting 8 Republicans and 6 Democrats. CNN had only one Democrat compared to 7 Republicans. [...]

As ThinkProgress reported on Monday, the cable networks, the Sunday shows and the network newscasts promoted a controversial CBO non-report 81 times before the actual CBO analysis of the stimulus plan was released.

So much for fair and balanced.

Anyone else wonder

Where they've been keeping the cable pundits of color these past few years? I mean, it's almost unseemly how they've whipped them all out at the same time, instead of maybe pretending it was a natural occurrence, that they've been there all along by easing them into the shows.

Shallow Thoughts: Talking heads edition

By GottaLaff

Today's Shallow Thought:

Why are Carly Fiorina and Pat Buchanan the go-to commentators on the Tee Vee Machine?

That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.

Cable Favs for Dems and GOP-ers

How goofy. None of the results match up to anything I like. I prefer The Daily Show, Myth Busters, The Shield, Dresden Files, and nothing on A&E.

Democrats like Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” Republicans like “South Park,” according to Nielsen Media, which has been looking into which cable shows are the most “engaging” among self-identified Democrats and Republicans. “Engagement” means the amount of attention paid to a show per the average viewer.

Channel by channel the results are as follows: Discovery: Democrats, “Deadliest Catch,” and Republicans, “Cash Cab”; FX: Democrats, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and Republicans, “Damages.” Finally, on the SciFi network, Democrats, “Tim Man,” and Republicans, “Doctor Who.” One Bipartisan winner: A&E’s Benjamin Bratt drama “The Cleaner.”