Television Viewership Collapsing - Finally!!
The time I have been praying for my entire life has now finally arrived. Television viewership is in a state of collapse, as per recent season-end viewer statistics released by the six major television networks; CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, UPN, and THE WB.
These statistics are alarming, especially when one considers that in years past, America gathered around the television set to find out what was going on in the world at that time.
Here are the 2004-2005 Year-End Television Ratings:
01) CBS - 12.9 million average weekly viewers
02) ABC - 10.1 million average weekly viewers
03) FOX - 9.9 million average weekly viewers
04) NBC - 9.8 million average weekly viewers
05) UPN - 3.4 million average weekly viewers
06) THE WB - 3.3 million average weekly viewers
SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly
(June 3, 2005) pgs. 14-16.
These numbers are particularily striking when one considers the ratings that television programs USED TO receive. Some people have tried to claim that the TOTAL VIEWERSHIP is equal to the TOTAL of the six networks above --- but this is simply not the case. The numbers simply do NOT add up. Besides, does the reader know of ANYONE who watches one network exclusively?!?!?!?
Here are some historic examples of television viewership that make the current situation look all the more horrible:
January 19, 1953 (CBS) - Series I LOVE LUCY broadcasts episode entitled "Lucy Gives Birth," in which the character Little Ricky is born on the show while Lucy gave birth to Desi Arnez Jr. in real life on the night of the broadcast. 72% of all viewers tune in to see the show, which was the subject of the cover of the very first issue of TV GUIDE, with the cover copy boasting "Lucy's $50,000,000 Baby." (44 million viewers, a record!)
February 9, 1964 (CBS) - The BEATLES perform on the Ed Sullivan Show for the very first of four appearances. (73 million viewers, a record!)
June 25, 1967 (First-ever worldwide satellite broadcast) - The BEATLES and friends perform "All You Need Is Love" on the BBC program "Our World." (200 million viewers in 100 countries worldwide tune in, a record!)
July 20, 1969 (4:17pm Eastern) - The lunar module comes to a rest on the surface of the moon. Later in the day, Neil Armstrong will come to utter his famous words as he steps off the ladder and onto the surface of the moon. (500 million viewers worldwide, a record!)
November 21, 1980 (CBS) - This was the night America found out "Who Shot J.R.?" of the DALLAS television soap. (76 million USA viewers, a record!)
February 28, 1983 (CBS) - M*A*S*H* broadcasts its' infamous finale episode, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen." (125 million viewers in America tune in, a record!)
July 13, 1985 - LIVE AID brings two continents of music to a worldwide viewership. (1.5 billion viewers worldwide, a record!)
SOURCE: The Museum of Broadcast Communications
http://www.museum.tv
Keep your eye on this --- as I have been doing myself. Just in the past ten years alone, television viewership in the USA has fallen off by about 40% overall --- as reflected in the networks' year-end numbers for this current 2004-2005 season.
In other mainstream media, there are a host of newspapers who are now lying about their true circulation figures --- most notably the Dallas Morning News. They are doing this to inflate their advertising rates --- and this is something that the reader is going to be seeing more and more of as we go forward.
This is good news to alternate press journalists such as myself, as we are now seeing the Internet become the primary source of news for millions of people the world over.
TiVo has also contributed to this, and I will cover that issue in my next column in THE KENTROVERSY PAPERS.
television
These statistics are alarming, especially when one considers that in years past, America gathered around the television set to find out what was going on in the world at that time.
Here are the 2004-2005 Year-End Television Ratings:
01) CBS - 12.9 million average weekly viewers
02) ABC - 10.1 million average weekly viewers
03) FOX - 9.9 million average weekly viewers
04) NBC - 9.8 million average weekly viewers
05) UPN - 3.4 million average weekly viewers
06) THE WB - 3.3 million average weekly viewers
SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly
(June 3, 2005) pgs. 14-16.
These numbers are particularily striking when one considers the ratings that television programs USED TO receive. Some people have tried to claim that the TOTAL VIEWERSHIP is equal to the TOTAL of the six networks above --- but this is simply not the case. The numbers simply do NOT add up. Besides, does the reader know of ANYONE who watches one network exclusively?!?!?!?
Here are some historic examples of television viewership that make the current situation look all the more horrible:
January 19, 1953 (CBS) - Series I LOVE LUCY broadcasts episode entitled "Lucy Gives Birth," in which the character Little Ricky is born on the show while Lucy gave birth to Desi Arnez Jr. in real life on the night of the broadcast. 72% of all viewers tune in to see the show, which was the subject of the cover of the very first issue of TV GUIDE, with the cover copy boasting "Lucy's $50,000,000 Baby." (44 million viewers, a record!)
February 9, 1964 (CBS) - The BEATLES perform on the Ed Sullivan Show for the very first of four appearances. (73 million viewers, a record!)
June 25, 1967 (First-ever worldwide satellite broadcast) - The BEATLES and friends perform "All You Need Is Love" on the BBC program "Our World." (200 million viewers in 100 countries worldwide tune in, a record!)
July 20, 1969 (4:17pm Eastern) - The lunar module comes to a rest on the surface of the moon. Later in the day, Neil Armstrong will come to utter his famous words as he steps off the ladder and onto the surface of the moon. (500 million viewers worldwide, a record!)
November 21, 1980 (CBS) - This was the night America found out "Who Shot J.R.?" of the DALLAS television soap. (76 million USA viewers, a record!)
February 28, 1983 (CBS) - M*A*S*H* broadcasts its' infamous finale episode, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen." (125 million viewers in America tune in, a record!)
July 13, 1985 - LIVE AID brings two continents of music to a worldwide viewership. (1.5 billion viewers worldwide, a record!)
SOURCE: The Museum of Broadcast Communications
http://www.museum.tv
Keep your eye on this --- as I have been doing myself. Just in the past ten years alone, television viewership in the USA has fallen off by about 40% overall --- as reflected in the networks' year-end numbers for this current 2004-2005 season.
In other mainstream media, there are a host of newspapers who are now lying about their true circulation figures --- most notably the Dallas Morning News. They are doing this to inflate their advertising rates --- and this is something that the reader is going to be seeing more and more of as we go forward.
This is good news to alternate press journalists such as myself, as we are now seeing the Internet become the primary source of news for millions of people the world over.
TiVo has also contributed to this, and I will cover that issue in my next column in THE KENTROVERSY PAPERS.
television
posted by Kentroversy at 7:41 PM
1 Comments:
I was blog surfing and came across your page. I love it when a person is not afraid to discuss controversial topics. Although I'm a big fan of TV, I have to say the quality in programming has recently gone down and I'm glad less people are buying into all that garbage.
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