Select Cable / Broadcast Ratings

For some period of time earlier this year the White House staff became increasingly irritated with what it believed was unfair coverage of the Administration by the Fox News Channel.

Beginning on October 8th with statements in Time Magazine, and continuing on CNN on October 11th, the White House staff expressed its irritation and took on Fox.

Fox responded through various of its programs, and the encounter was on and accelerated. Intrigued with the question of whether this encounter had the affect of increasing Fox's audience, WW set out to find out.

Based on WW's review (which will be explained below) there was no apparent increase in audience.

Here is what I did. I reviewed the daily and weekly ratings of the Fox News Channel for the 7-12 p.m. time period, and particular programs for the 2 weeks before and the 2 weeks after October 11th. Additionally, I looked at a different set of ratings for the 6-9 a.m. period.

[HH = number of TV households; rating of 1.0 = 1,149,000 households]

7- 12 p.m.

2 weeks before - average HH rating 1.28 (1,471,000HH)
2 weeks after - average HH rating 1.275 (1,465,000HH)

Glen Beck show

2 weeks before - average HH rating 1.025 (1,178,000HH)
2 weeks after - average HH rating .98 (1,126,000HH)

Sean Hannity show

2 weeks before - average rating 1.075 (1,235,000HH)
2 weeks after - average rating 1.015 (1,166,000HH)

6 - 9 a.m.

9/22-10/19/08 - rating .98 (1,126,000HH)
9/21-10/18/09 - ratomg .83 (953,000HH)

Here is additional information you may find of interest.

7-12 p.m. 4th quarter 2009 season to date

Fox News Channel - rating 1.28 (1,471,000HH)
CNN - rating .44 (506,000HH)
MSNBC - rating .44 (506,000HH)
Headline news - rating .35 (402,000HH)
CNBC - rating .13 (149,000HH)

6-7 p.m. 4th quarter 2009 season to date

NBC Nightly News - rating 5.47 (6,285,000HH)
ABC World News Tonight - rating 5.07 (5,825,000HH)
CBS Evening News - rating 3.91 (4,493,000HH)

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