Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Stephen Colbert Vs Fox News

Americablog pointed out the silliness of The Drudge Report comparing the ratings of a comedy show to a cable news network. But since they brought it up.... The latest figures are in for the cable news channels and while you might take comfort in drops in viewership for Fox News, they're even steeper for CNN. According to Mediaweek, Fox News Channel is averaging 1.43 million in primetime. "The Colbert Report" is averaging 1.07 million, which isn't that far behind for a first year series. But wait! The Fox numbers are for primetime, while Colbert's ratings are for his 11:30 p.m. broadcast, which is late night. Mediaweek doesn't provide late night ratings for Fox, but their viewership average for the entire day is only 787,000 viewers. Certainly, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert outdraw the rerun of Bill O'Reilly. And Colbert outdraws the daily average of FNC overall. So Colbert beats Fox head-to-head AND beats Fox's all-day average. Comparing primetime to late night is silly -- more people are watching in primetime, so ratings should be higher. But Colbert beats Fox head-to-head and his ratings continue to grow while Fox's are declining.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

For my money, the Colbert Report is one of the smartest, funniest shows on television.

Michael in New York said...

Do you like it better than The Daily Show? What makes it better? (I love their banter between the shows but haven't watched it regularly yet.)

Anonymous said...

I like them both, but if forced to pick I think I prefer Colbert. The tiebreaker for me is his interview segments at the end of the show which always crack me up...