If you don’t watch CNN or MSNBC, you’re hardly alone. But Bill Carter at the New York Times is very interested in their jockeying for a distant second place in the ratings:
The ratings results for the month of September show that CNN, long relegated to third place in the prime-time cable news competition, is edging its way back up, while MSNBC is moving in the other direction.
For the month, CNN averaged 257,000 viewers in prime time in the category that counts most to the networks — viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 — because that is where the advertising money goes for news programming. MSNBC was just barely ahead with 269,000 viewers. (Neither approached the leader, Fox News, with 526,000).
Both CNN and MSNBC had one especially strong night because of the Republican presidential debates.
That’s right, they’ve discovered the secret to ratings success: Republicans. Otherwise they’re each stuck with a viewer base roughly the size of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
But wait, it gets even better. What about Keith? He’s finally getting his revenge, right?
Mr. Olbermann averaged just over 50,000 viewers in the 25-to-54 measure in September, or less than 20 percent of what he attracted on MSNBC. Still, many of those 50,000 may have previously been viewers of MSNBC — and Mr. O’Donnell was 30,000 viewers behind Mr. Cooper in September.
That’s showin’ ’em! So Scary Larry is an ant biting the ankle of Bill O’Reilly, and Keith is latched onto one of Larry’s antennae like a speck of dust. And they all keep sticking their fat heads in front of the camera and babbling away as if anybody’s watching. Well, it keeps them from doing any real harm.