Beck's TV Ratings Off From Last Year

The Financial Times picks up on the current Glenn Beck meme — how “Prominent US conservatives have begun to distance themselves” from Beck. The story points to recent articles from the conservative commentariat including Bill Kristol, Jennifer Rubin and Peter Wehner.

Chris Ariens at TVnewser.com writes some are wondering whether Beck’s recent commentary — whether off the wall or simply uninformed — is done in the name of ratings.

A spokesman for Beck would not comment, but one person close to Beck challenged the notion that the moves were motivated by ratings, noting that he remains the third-biggest US talk radio host after Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, according to Talkers magazine.

Beck’s television audience was down 40 per cent in January, but this reflected a similar decline for the preceding show’s audience and Beck still beat the combined audiences of MSNBC and CNN, the cable rivals to Fox News, this person said.

The February ratings are out and year-over-year Beck is down again, the most of any FNC show. He’s dropped -26% in total viewers and down -32% in younger viewers. Of course, last February he had FNC’s second most popular show, after “The O’Reilly Factor.” Last month, he slipped to fourth.

Read more here.

Hat Tip: The Wrap


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