Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Fox News' Ratings Take a Nosedive

From the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

Fox News' ratings, TVNewser reports, are down since August of last year. Like, way down. Like down 28 percent in primetime among all viewers, down 20 percent in primetime in the "money demo" (viewers aged 25-54) and down 7 percent in daytime viewership overall. In fact, the only place Fox is up is during the day, when they managed a ratings increase of just 2 percent, and even then only in the money demo.

Click here for the rest.

The formula for good television ratings is mysterious, indeed. What was big yesterday is often crap today, and what's hot today is often embarrassing tomorrow. Programmers who are unable to figure out tastes quickly enough don't last long in the business. The formula Fox News has been using for years, far right-wing distortions and lies, continual attacks against moderates and liberals, and defending the GOP no matter what happens, all the while branding the approach as "fair and balanced," has been formidable: Fox is the absolute king of cable news, and not even a 28% drop in prime time ratings will change that. But this plunge in ratings is definitely good news. It strongly suggests that their formula may very well be turning out to be tomorrow's embarrassment.

And that's no surprise given how sick so many Americans have become of the right-wing bullshit they've been force-fed by Fox for some ten years now. Who knows? In ten more years, facts may be what's hot. Here's hoping.

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