A Year Ago O'Reilly Said he Had 6 Million Viewers

[stewert]

Now he says it is 4 million, both statements are flat out lies. Using his own words he has lost 2 million viewers a night since 12-15-04.

From a 12-15-04 interview with Ashleigh Banfield:

BANFIELD: Well, the word is that there are going to be changes maybe at CBS anyway. We don't know what's going on. There's a -- there's a real upheaval, it seems, in cable news right -- or, excuse me, in broadcast news right now.

And why is that? Because people like you are getting two million viewers a night, and you're making a lot of money doing it which makes stars.

O'REILLY: Let me break this to you. I get -- I get six million viewers a night, which they'll never admit, but that's the way it is.

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Here is what he said on the 3-22-06 Factor:

O'REILLY: "The Factor's" total cumulative, 24 hours, about four million viewers a night, not counting the Direct TV people and the college people. That makes us very competitive with the late night network shows and the net morning programs. We also are creeping up on "The CBS Evening News".

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And now the truth, for February of 2006 the O'Reilly Factor averaged a 1.9 rating with 2.3 million total viewers a night.

www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/original/feb06ranker.pdf

And the Factor ratings have dropped from a 2.5 rating in October of 2005 to a 1.9 rating for February of 2006.

www.oreilly-sucks.com/politics/cablenewsratings.htm

So even if we use the bogus 4 million number from O'Reilly, he has lost 2 million viewers a night (according to him) in a little over a year, and if you drop from 6 million to 4 million you are not creeping up on CBS news. Not to mention he is counting his 2 reruns to get that 4 million number, which is not done by neilson. They only count the ratings for one show, they do not count reruns.

[C_U_L8R]

1. He counts each one as a new viewer

every time they come back from the kitchen
(with more pork rinds and beer)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. he is right, in one way.

O'Reilly is most popular with the 69-85 age category. That means, that every time hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer's victims flip back to his station, they truly are totally unaware of what was said on his program just minutes earlier.

If I inadvertently insulted an Alzheimer's suffering elderly viewer and fan of O'Reilly, I apologize.

[rucky]

2. Each Peabody Award he receives counts as a million viewers.

they're basically interchangable.

Now why don't you start reporting the GOOD NEWS about Bill O'Reilly?!

:P

[havocmom]

4. I have just two words for O'Reilly:

Keith Olbermann

:evilgrin:

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. He counts the crowds in hotel lobbies and gas stations

There's probably 2-4 million passing through as they checkin/out and pay for gas on any given day!

[KharmaTrain]

6. Now Let's Look At The Money Demo

25-54 adults...O'Reilly barely reaches 500,000...a little more than half of what Obermann reaches during that time slot and far less than what's being watched at the same time on ESPN or MTV. I haven't seen 18-34 demo numbers, but I can't imagine Faux even showing there at all. As Olbermann noted, a majority of O'Reilly's audience is over 65...not quite prime dollar viewership.

That said, the rap on the older audience isn't totally fair. These people tend to be a lot more loyal than younger viewers, have larger incomes (while they might not spend as impulsively as younger ones) and vote.

In the past O'Reilly was caught combining numbers of all his "runs". At one time Faux had him on 4 times a day and he was using aggregate or made up aggregate numbers...thus those huge, but false numbers. Another game that is used (Rushbo does this one), is noting a "cume" number...or the number of people who tune in for a few moments as opposed to those who actually listen (TSL...time spent listening)...it's like counting people who look in your store window as buyers compared to ones who actually come into your store. Also, they'll combine an entire week's worth of numbers and try to palm that off as an "average" daily number.

As the old chestnut goes, statistics lie when liars "use" statistics.

Cheers...

[stewert]

7. Factor Viewers........

The average factor viewer is 68 years old, so I doubt very much any college kids are watching him.

On thursday 2-23-06 the factor had 363,000 viewers in the 25 to 54 demo, he also had 2,247,000 total viewers that night.

On an average night he has 300,000 to 400,000 viewers in the 25 to 54 demo.

I have not seen the 18 to 34 demo numbers, ever. I am guessing nobody cares about that demo so nobody publishes it.