Did you see that interview George Stephanopoulos did on Sunday? No? Then you’re not alone. For all the attention and chatter political talk show hosts receive, a look at their actual viewership reveals some surprising numbers.
In a country of more than 215 million adults, only 1.1 million people tune in to Larry King—that’s less than 5 percent of CSI’s audience. Bill O’Reilly preaches to only 2.2 million people, Lou Dobbs pulls in 863,000, Keith Olbermann’s Countdown draws 682,000, and Nancy Grace has 406,000. Fact is, household names like King, O’Reilly and Olbermann (our Interview this month) aren’t in many households. Even dormitory stalwarts like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert attract only about 1.3 million viewers each.
So how do these guys get to drive the national agenda? Why do we seem to know what they’ve been saying? Because they have the right million viewers: Politicians, captains of industry and media people make up their demographic. “One thing to consider about how the Olbermanns and O’Reillys garner so much attention with such little reach,” says Toni Fitzgerald, managing editor of MediaLife magazine, “is that their audience is largely made up of influentials. These people control information, and when they pass it off to their friends, Olbermann’s and O’Reilly’s messages go beyond the 1 million to 2 million people who watch the show.”
Some of the influentials are bloggers; a quick Google search determines that 109,000 blog entries contain the word Olbermann (not as common a surname as Smith). Olbermann himself blogs to make sure he’s in on the conversation. Tack that blog traffic onto the dozens of streaming videos from the show’s website and from sites such as YouTube and the number of people who hear his opinion increases dramatically.
Believe it or not, 8.4 million people watch Don’t Forget the Lyrics, but the same unscientific polling technique used above finds that only 3,000 blog entries contain the show’s name. While cable news programs have never done well in the ratings, what they have done well is ensure that the right people tune in and talk about them.
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The fact that 406,000 people are watching Nancy Grace every night makes me want to push thumb tacks into my scrotum.