Fox News Struggling Since The Election

For quite a while now, the news team at the NBC News cable channel (formerly called MSNBC) has finished a poor second to the talking heads at Fox News. But a surprising thing has happened since the election. According to the Nielsen ratings for November 7th through November 16th, NBC's cable channel has logged 8% more viewers than Fox news in the 24 to 54 demographic (the most coveted age group for advertisers). In addition, News Corpse says:

Particularly impressive were the results of the two powerhouse programs on the MSNBC lineup: Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell. Maddow won seven of the eight days against her Fox competition, Sean Hannity. For the 8-day run Maddow beat Hannity by 18% and her 544k average was second to only Bill O’Reilly in all of cable news. O’Donnell won all eight days against Fox’s Greta Van Susteren. His margin of victory over Van Susteren was 17% for the eight days.

This can no longer be considered a temporary blip on the ratings scales. With two weeks having elapsed, the MSNBC programs are showing steady strength against competition that was once thought insurmountable. Only Bill O’Reilly is holding his top position for Fox in primetime. This may indicate that Sean Hannity is wearing thin with viewers who are likely disappointed with his overly confident (and harebrained) assurances that all the polls were wrong and that Mitt Romney would emerge victorious.

Hannity is perhaps the most stridently partisan host on the Fox News network and frequently augments his analysis with that of the pundit world’s most notorious nutcase, Dick Morris. As for Van Susteren, she never had the cult-like following of her Fox comrades, but she has been closely associated with her good friend (and client of her husband), Sarah Palin. That association may also have become a drag on the ratings of her show. 

Those are encouraging numbers. At least for the last couple of weeks, people seem more interested in getting real facts instead of the steady diet of lies being put out by Fox News. The real question now is whether NBC can sustain this. I hope they can, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.