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Recent headlines exclaiming “Cable News Ratings Soar,” about how there were 72.5 billion minutes of news consumption in 2016, made me cringe. Any time you start talking about billions of minutes viewed, it’s a not-too-transparent attempt to hide the fact that average ratings are small.
This is relevant in light of Bill O’Reilly being fired from Fox News under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations. “The O’Reilly Factor” has been positioned in the press as a ratings powerhouse. If cable news ratings were soaring, Bill O’Reilly was leading the charge. The reality, however, is somewhat different from the headlines.
There is no question that O’Reilly has been key to Fox News’s prime-time success, helping the network rise head and shoulders above the other cable news networks. But there is a reason why you seldom hear anything about his actual ratings. They’re decent, but by no means great. O’Reilly’s live adult 18-49 rating in the Q4 (election season) was only 0.26. Among the key news demo of adults 25-54, it was just 0.40 – less than half a rating point....
Here's a very useful reality check on Bill O'Reilly, Fox news and cable TV news ratings in general.