Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:01 pm
Beck is still in denial about his ratings decline
FNC’s Glenn Beck continues to flail desperately in an attempt to combat the mass exodus of viewers from his television show. Today Beck cast blame on the media and politicians who don’t believe in anything, “Do you know why you are so confused by this show? It is because I believe in something. You don’t.”
Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Beck was ostensibly talking about Left wing revolutions that are going to overthrow the government, when he claimed that his show is misunderstood by the politicians and the media because he believes in something, “The media and the politicians have all of this wrong. In every single walk of life, do you want to know why TV doesn’t reflect you? Do you want to know why Washington doesn’t reflect you? Because they don’t understand from the radical revolutionaries to the Islamic extremists, and yes DOJ, they do exist, to the Tea Party movements. Just because you in Washington, and you who are so out of touch with life, in the media, just because don’t believe in something doesn’t mean nobody else does. We do. Do you know why you are so confused by this show? It is because I believe in something. You don’t.”
Glenn Beck’s vision of a group of millions who believe in something with him is betrayed by the ratings. His epic slide in total viewers continues downward as the highest total audience number that he has posted in the past 10 days is 2.3 million.
The ratings for Monday and Tuesday of this week look even worse as he has started out the week at 1.976 million total viewers, and on Tuesday had already slumped to 1.895 million viewers. To put this into context, the program that follows Beck, Bret Baier, drew more total viewers, 2.049 million, than Beck did. This means that viewers turned off Beck, left Fox News, and came back for Baier’s show at 6 PM (et).
Beneath the self-delusional mumbo jumbo about Beck leading a movement of the enlightened is what appears to be an increasingly desperate man trying to cling on to the remains of his stardom. Perhaps when Beck was yelling about his show being misunderstood, he wasn’t just referring to Left wing revolutionaries, Washington, and the media. Maybe, just maybe, Beck was looking for an explanation for why viewers continue to leave him behind.
Mr. Beck is the man who calls the shots for his own show, and it seems that he made a gross miscalculation when he decided that the solution for his ratings ills was a move even further right. He can blame Washington, progressives, and the media, but when viewers turn off his show and come back for the one that follows that is a clear sign that Beck has bypassed decline and is entering decay. The Glenn Beck Program is now nothing more than an average to slightly below average Fox News program, and Beck has not yet reached the stage of acceptance of his decline.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
