Ratings Gold for Fox and Glenn Beck

Los Angeles Times

Beck's indignant critiques of the Obama administration and gloomy outlook on the nation's financial health have found near-instant resonance. His eponymous 2 p.m. PST program averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers last month -- double the number the time slot attracted the previous February and a remarkable amount for the afternoon. That made "Glenn Beck" the third most-watched program in all of cable news for the month, after Bill O'Reilly's and Sean Hannity's evening shows.

...

..."We still have 90 seconds -- why don't you tell me about last night's ratings?" he said to his producer in the control room upstairs. The word came back through his earpiece: 2.2 million viewers, more than CNN, MSNBC and HLN combined at that hour. A grin spread across Beck's face.

"Wow, we're closing in on O'Reilly!" he exclaimed jovially. "I'm coming for him!"

Glenn Beck's worst case scenarios were parodied by Stephen Colbert, natch. But Colbert's mockery works better against someone who takes himself seriously. Say like O'Reilly.

But as anyone that knows anything about Americans would know, disaster sells, and even more so now that Americans are in a very grim mood. Fox is not only doing better than all the rest of cable news put together, it's number two among cable channels overall. Is being the only cable voice for the 46% of America that did not vote for Obama a surefire winner? Seems likely.

I agree that Tommy is right to be skeptical of the Rush doubled ratings story last week, but it's also a cinch that Rush's ratings have gone up in the light of the Fox numbers. The only question is by how much, and how many new listeners did he get?