Site Meter Watching The View » Blog Archive » So maybe the ratings are down?

So maybe the ratings are down?

by

I reported previously how an article in The New York Times stated that the ratings for the The View remained up after Rosie O’Donnell’s departure. That article specifically said that while Rosie was there, the ratings were up 17% over the previous season in the same time period. The article claimed that in the first two weeks after her departure, the ratings were still “nearly a half million viewers” more than the previous year in that time period. The article said that the ratings remained 16% greater than the previous year.

Now Fox News is reporting that since Rosie’s departure, The View has lost over 400,000 viewers per day.

Indeed, “The View” suffered a 13 percent decline in household ratings, and a 9 percent decline in overall ratings during the combined weeks of June 4 and 11 compared with Rosie’s last two weeks.

Here are some stats: The week of May 21, Rosie’s last week (even though no one knew it), the show had an average of 3.8 million viewers a day. But the week of June 11, the ratings were down to 3.35 million viewers a day.

I do not pretend to be a mathematician or statistician, so maybe some of my readers can do the calculations for me. Is it possible for both sets of numbers to be correct? Could The View be down 400,000 viewers per day and still be up 16% over last year? Is this just a case of manipulating the same numbers to have the outcome desired by the writer? Or is one of these articles just completely wrong?

, , , ,


7 Responses to “So maybe the ratings are down?”

  1. Lajet Says:

    ARTICLE: The article claimed that in the first two weeks after her departure, the ratings were still “nearly a half million viewers” more than the previous year in that time period. The article said that the ratings remained 16% greater than the previous year.

    Note: numbers are totally made up and only for explanatory purposes.

    I interpret the article to say that while Rosie was there she built viewership by ALOT. When she left, a significant number of viewers left -but not all of them. So if Rosie increased viewership by 50,000 viewers, and 10,000 left when she left, there were be a signfiicant drop when she left, and an overall increase in viewership compared to the previous year.

  2. Peaches Says:

    The Fox article also mentions that The Price Is Right did indeed make her an offer, a big one at that, that she refused. Haven’t seen any official word from The Price Is Right folks on this, though. Don’t know how reliable that Fox website entertainment reporter is. It’ll be interesting to see how the Fox cable news “reporters” present the story.

    Is it possible the stats about viewership have been spun or deliberately misunderstood because of negotations she has been in, or may or may not be in, with not only The Price Is Right but other networks? If Fox is trying to woo her, it would be to their benefit to mention how The View’s ratings tanked after she left. There have been rumors of a show on Fox with her pitted against Hannity (which she said on her blog she wouldn’t do).

    In any event, I’m eager to read why the NYT got it wrong–if indeed they did. Who knows?

  3. Alice Says:

    Ratings can be interpreted many ways. Interestingly, I always thought that the article from the NYT was a pr stunt in a way for the View to hang on to Viewers or lure some back. Fox isn’t normally a place to get unbias news but Roger Friedman has lately been the one that goes against normal Fox spin. He is the same one that gave Michael Moore’s Sicko a positive review.

    On the math front, it is indeed possible for the show to have lost Viewers since Rosie left and still be up from the previous year. In a way, it is a half full/empty cup way of interpreting. One says the ratings are down since Rosie left. The other says that ratings are up from this time last year. Both statements can be true.

  4. ronnie Says:

    Glad to see that even Rosie’s defenders ignore her demand not to watch Fox (even though FNC is unfair, unreliable, and decidedly unbalanced in almost every broadcast).

  5. Stacee Says:

    ronnie, who exactly are the defenders who are ‘ignoring Rosie’s demands and watching Fox’? And why would you assume that a person who does not watch Fox are doing so because of Rosie? Or are you doing the same thing you accused others of doing: generalizing and speculating?

  6. ronnie Says:

    “who exactly are the defenders who are ‘ignoring Rosie’s demands and watching Fox’?”

    The people on this blog who have defended Rosie and cited Fox sources.

    “And why would you assume that a person who does not watch Fox are doing so because of Rosie?”

    You have created a charge I did not make. I never said that people who don’t watch Fox are not doing so because of Rosie. I said that it was heartening to see that, despite Rosie’s many criticisms of Fox on television and on her blog, her fans were able to consult Fox sources and cite whatever they felt was credible.

    “Or are you doing the same thing you accused others of doing: generalizing and speculating?”

    No. QED

  7. Stacee Says:

    ‘The people on this blog who have defended Rosie and cited Fox sources.’

    Citing a Fox source does not mean one actually watches the Fox news channel. I have seen this story or article on different message boards as well as other news articles. This does not mean I watched Fox to see it.

    ‘I said that it was heartening to see that, despite Rosie’s many criticisms of Fox on television and on her blog, her fans were able to consult Fox sources and cite whatever they felt was credible.’

    No that is not what you said. You posted: ‘Glad to see that even Rosie’s defenders ignore her demand not to watch Fox’. Big difference. The first certainly infers that people are watching Fox despite your assertion that Rosie demand them not to.

    RFE


About Watching The View

Did something cause you to miss The View? There is now something that you can do! Visit watchingtheview.com and you will see, Daily recaps, gossip, and what it's like without Rosie! Although other sites might mention the show, This site is all about The View, don't you know? Even if you have seen the show today, Come back to comment and give your say!

Watching The View Author(s)

TV Channel Posts

  • A Couple of Suggestions for Your TV Viewing Tonight
    Monday night is such a great night to watch reality television and I just wanted to remind you all of what you could watch tonight. Last week MTV premiered the new season of Sex…with Mom and Dad. [...]
  • Double Duty
    Hello again! It’s Monday, new episode day! To tide you over until the show comes on, I’ve got a second promo for tonight to share. It was posted by Jonas Hodges. I actually really like this one [...]
  • ...But does the quilt travel in time?
    (It turns out that I've been collecting odds and ends of news and coolness in my Firefox tags since before I left for Gallifrey One. So, here they are all gathered together for you.) I've got [...]
  • Running Diary: 2009 Oscars
    ...And immediately we regret this decision. For a couple reasons, really. The aforementioned hangover and general fatigue is part of it, but we weren't all that enamored with most of the films with [...]
  • Watching the View Oscar Open Thread
    Feel free to comment about tonight's Academy Awards here! I look forward to seeing what role Whoopi Goldberg will be having in the ceremony and what her dress looks like. [...]
  • It’s an Amazing Race Reunion
    Ok so last week I told you about Reality Check Radio and that it basically rocked. In case you didn’t read my blog, although I am sure you all did, Reality Check Radio is an online BlogTalkRadio [...]
  • February 24, 2009 TV on DVD Releases: Animated
    Here is this week’s edition for TV on DVD Releases in the animated/kids category. Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder - This is a feature length film of the animated adult show, Futurama. It [...]
  • There's no place like Mode recap
    This week's episode of 'Ugly Betty' has the staff busy with Fashion Week and Betty with a new YETI assignment. Wilhemina works to get back on top in the fashion world as Daniel gives Molly as [...]
  • What's Coming Up On The CW?
    I've been wondering what's going on with the CW. It seems like there's been a lot of repeats lately, so I have nothing new to talk about. So I went through the next two weeks to see what's [...]
  • Sunday Posts
    Just a quick reminder that we're going to be live-blogging the Oscars tonight. We're tired, we're hungover and we have to sit in a high school audotorium for two hours here shortly, which will almost [...]

Hot Off The Press

  • Faces of Haiti: Hormise
    Her name is Hormise Datos. For 9 years she was living illegally in the United States. She is a Haitian and this is her story. She grew up in the vicinity of Saint Marc. Her parents worked in the [...]