More Proof of Collapsing TV Viewership

This chart speaks for itself.


The August 5, 2005 issue of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (pg. 15) contained a rather interesting statistic:

"Last month, the Spanish-language channel [Univision] was No. 1 among ALL NETWORKS in the advertiser-friendly 18-to-34 crowd, averaging 1.2 million nightly viewers in the demo[graphic] (some 50,000 viewers more than FOX at No. 2)."

Turning to the ratings sidebar on pg. 57 of this same issue --- one finds that of all first-run programs during the week of July 18-25, 2005 --- the number-one non-repeat program was FOX network's SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE --- which drew only 10.3 million viewers. This show came in at no. 3 for the week --- which was behind repeats of both CSI (14.6 million viewers) and WITHOUT A TRACE (12.7 million viewers) at no. 1 and no. 2, respectively.

Just to remind the reader, here are the 2004-2005 television season year-end ratings, as also reported by ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:

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 number clearly indicate that approximately 40% of the audience has simply shut off their television sets.

If you want to check out some outrageously low ratings --- check out the ratings of the political pundits chat-shows. These networks, such as CNN, MSNBC, and FOX-News consider 1 or 2 million viewers to be a notable thing.

As the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS sing:

"Throw away your television,
Time to make this clean decision.
Master waits for it's collision now,
It's a repeat of a story told,
It's a repeat and it's getting old . . ."

Amen to that one, brothers and sisters . . . !

See also:

Internet Taking A Bite Out of Television Usage