As the year draws to a close the ratings winners and loser are being sorted out and Fox News clearly dominated the cable news segment with the top ten shows in the key A25-53 demographic and the top twelve shows in total viewership and slaying the competition in the process.

The top cable news show was Bill O’Reilly followed by Hannity and Beck while the best MSNBC could do was eleventh with Keith Olbermann followed by Lawrence O’Donnell at thirteen and Rachel Maddow at fourteen.  MSNBC’s Ed Schultz who said he was sick and tired of Republicans and that’s why he didn’t invite them on the air finished 27th in the A-25-54 demo.

But at least that was far better than CNN whose highest show was AC360 at number twenty and saw Parker Spitzer limp in at number thirty eight.

Over at the broadcast networks Brian Williams continued to dominate the evening news cycle in the A25-54 segment by beating ABC by 424,000 viewers and Katie Couric by a whopping 756,000.  NBC has now won thirteen consecutive quarters as they cement their number one position.

The ratings aren’t really a surprise to those that follow both broadcast and cable news but the dominance of Fox and the failure of CNN has become more glaring this year and shows the divide in how news is both represented and covered.

With the Republicans taking over the House next week it is possible that Fox will experience some ratings softness but they are so far ahead of MSNBC and CNN that even some slippage won’t knock them from their perch much to the consternation of liberals.

It was another interesting year in news and 2011 will give us a new round of stories to cover and critique and with any luck a little less bias.

Thanks for your support of AIM and have a very Happy New Year!

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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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