Regardless of the answer, Variety released July viewer totals for the cable news outlets, and, once again, Fox News is completely destroying the competition. In fact, some of the numbers are pretty laughable (ergo, put your drinking vessels away!):
Despite FNC's declines, it still beat CNN handily in primetime, averaging 1.5 million viewers to CNN's 864,000; CNN still has a long way to go before it can be considered a serious ratings challenger.
FNC won every hour of each day over CNN for the 55th straight month. It was the No. 5-rated cable network in June, behind USA, TNT, TBS and Lifetime. CNN came in 24th, MSNBC 36th.
That deserves closer examination, doesn’t it? Fox has beaten CNN every hour of every day for 55 straight months?!? Yikes. And, FNC is the fifth-ranked network on cable? Yet, the chuckles kept coming:
"Van Susteren" was down the most of any cable news show in July, dropping 33% in total viewers and 32% in the 25-54 demographic, the most important for advertisers.
Nevertheless, "Van Susteren" still came out on top of CNN's much-promoted "Anderson Cooper 360," which added 49% in total viewers during the month. "Van Susteren" averaged 1.4 million viewers during the month compared with 970,000 for "AC 360."
Imagine that. With all the focus that has been given to Cooper, including a front-page feature story in Vanity Fair, he’s getting demolished by Greta. Now that’s entertainment. But, the chuckles weren’t done yet, for the article saved the most hysterical section for the end:
MSNBC also saw broad ratings gains over a much smaller base. "Hardball With Chris Matthews" was up 156% in July, but its 338,000 viewers made it a distant third to CNN's "The Situation Room" (716,000 total viewers) and FNC's "Big Story With John Gibson" (1.1 million).
"Countdown With Keith Olbermann" also was up, but a feud with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly didn't help his competitive position much. Olbermann finished third in the 25-54 demo and fourth in total viewers to Headline News' "Nancy Grace."
Isn’t that delicious? Olbermann actually got beat by Nancy Grace.
I don’t know about you, but I need some oxygen!
