After nearly three months on the air, Countdown with Keith Olbermann is showing signs of viewer fatigue.

Nielsen ratings for Countdown for the week of September 5-11 show that Olbermann averaged 142,000 total viewers with just 46,000 in the key A25-54 demo. That was a far cry from his debut week in June when the show averaged 319,000 total viewers and 114,000 in the key demo.

If Current TV executives are worried about Olbermann’s free fall in the ratings they aren’t publicly admitting it.

According to the New York Daily News, Current says the low September “Countdown” numbers could be attributed to a number of factors including a repeat episode that ran on Labor Day as well as back problems that kept Olbermann off the air for five days in late August. That’s right. His late August back problems negatively affected his early September ratings when he was actually hosting the show.

In addition to these excuses the network also blamed developments in the news, from Obama’s jobs speech to the GOP debate, which may have sent viewers to other networks that cover breaking news.

That might possibly explain some of the ratings decline, but the fact remains that in general, Countdown has been trending downward since week one and isn’t building an audience as Current execeutives had hoped.

The signing of Olbermann for a reported $10 million per year is beginning to resemble CBS News’ failed experiment with Katie Couric, to whom they paid $15 million a year though she failed to move the ratings needle over the course of her five years in the anchor chair. But at least she had an audience of about six million compared to Olbermann’s 142,000.

At the rate Olbermann is going, he may soon be off the Nielsen charts altogether.

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About the author

Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.

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6 Comments for Counting Down Olbermann’s Ratings

Susan Rawlings

Perhaps Mr. Olbermann’s ratings dilemma is a sign that indeed the bias in media toward the liberal point of view is not resonating with the American public. We hope there is a greater balance to be struck, especially with our youth. New publications like The Conservative Teen offer teens and adults a completely different perspective than Mr. Olbermann and hit counterparts present. Take a look at some of their editorial content here–www.theconservativeteen.com/toc–and you’ll understand there is a different point of view out here that should be examined.

Greg

Olbermann is a narcisisstic albatross around any network executive’s neck. If he wasn’t so in love with himself he would quietly go away. He won’t-he can still get attention by hanging around, throwing tantrums and insults.

Ted

If Olbermann and his 142,000 viewers are so damned inconsequential, then why the hell is AIM CONSTANTLY presenting articles here in a continuing attempt to personally skewer Olbermann and those few in the general public who do watch his program?

The largest voter group in this country, somewhere north of 40%, are the Independent moderates … who are NEITHER wingnut Conservatives nor wingnut Liberals … so … why don’t YOU focus on the interests of THAT constituency/market instead of promoting blatantly rightwing nonsense.

And, of course, if its fair for Sean Hannity to be in the camp of the rightwing nutcases … it’s certainly “fair-and-balanced” for Olbermann to be in the camp of the leftwing nutcases.

Get a life! And present some stuff here that really matters!

Queef Olbermann

So Al Gore in paying Keith $70.42 per viewer and Katie was paid $2.50 per viewer?

Remind me to never invest in ANYTHING related to AL GORE…

Wayne Up

The reason his show’s ratings are dropping somewhat is that Keith only appeared on his own show twice in the last two weeks. When he shows up his ratings are good.

Comanche Voter

The market/audience for poo flinging monkeys is a small one. As Olberman is finding out.