Survey Says…
In a must read, Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici writes about the Q scores for Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck. Nut graph…
The extraordinarily high negative Q Scores of Beck and Olbermann are useful in understanding why Fox News and MSNBC grew increasingly unhappy with the hosts even as they continued to pull strong ratings. In effect, both men carry a significant negative brand halo. For a programmer whose job is to build an audience across an entire lineup of shows, that’s a problem.
Inside Cable News 
June 8, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Good post; I’m usually a FNC watcher; but try as I could I gave up on Beck’s show; frankly I could never figure out what his point was. As I’ve said, the day he licked an ice cream cone and looked into the camera and smiled I personally wished him a Phuk you very much and moved on.
It’s the feeling I also get from Huckabee’s show (of which I refer to as the “talent” show; and Geraldo’s show, too. it’s a personality conflict.
He’s not getting me as an online sub. Wonder what the composite Beck watcher is like?
It gives the opportunity to see how the other folks are covering the same stories.
June 8, 2011 at 6:17 pm
I like Beck and I think he’s very intelligent and dead-on about a lot of things but his presentation could be better and his beliefs will only matter if his predictions come true. I don’t think he’s that far off but many people don’t want to hear (whether he’s right or not) what he has to say. I will say that his book, The Overton Window, was very intriguing and definitely makes you think about the way certain things are presented, like gas prices.
June 8, 2011 at 7:41 pm
That was an enlightening article and it makes perfect sense. I think many of us intuitively knew that both men were net liabilities for their respective networks, but I, at least, was never able to put my finger on how those liabilities stacked-up relative to ratings.
Beck might do well in his new endeavour. He’s an intelligent guy who likes to think way out of the box and there’s clearly an audience for that. And once he’s off FNC he won’t be such a large target for ridicule.
June 8, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Who will pay a periodic fee to hear/watch Beck? If his shows’ content emulates his stint on FNC I don’t hold too much hope for Beck’s future. He must feel the same also; as a prudent person he sold his mega house in NY/Conn.
He’s got a family and children so he will not rely on clowning and silliness to fill his hours.
Rush Limbaugh is one of the few who has been able to sustain a fee for service model and grow his subscriber base, but he also has a huge contract on AM radio to fall back upon.
Beck was recently dropped by WOR (I think it was); he still is carried on the local San Diego station, but I never lisen to him as the signals on the ocean side of the Peninsula get screwed up and the carrying stations don’t seem to have an interest in cleaning up their signals.
Laura Ingraham was dropped by my local affiliate. As was the gay conservative woman (Tammy Bruce) after she openly predicted McCain would be the new president. (she was just wrong), no matter how much I had hoped this progressive POTUS would be de-railed.
The Calm cool McCain was someone that many of us knew did not have the presidential timbre.
McCain missed his time, because he would have been excellent as a man “close to the nuclear button” that you would not want to PO in case that he would start WW3; that was Nixon’s role.
Former Joint Chief Gen. Hugh Shelton said so in print, too.
I still say Beck blew his chance on network radio by his silliness and “phoning in” his shows.
When he cried and did that Schtick on TV; that one even broke up the progressive Tina Brown and got a rise from her…(one must get that episode it was hilarious. I’ll miss laughing at Beck’s occasional antics.
When he cried that he “just loved his country” many just shook their heads, and followed it with licking his ice cream cone on camera no one was willing to give him the benefit of doubt.
Perhaps Beck’s austerity will hone his program into something worthy of paying to hear.
I will wait for others to make that claim.
June 8, 2011 at 9:45 pm
I hate to beat a dead horse here, but what exactly is Beck “very intelligent” and “dead on” about? He completely botches actual history (when talking about Martin Luther King, for example) and makes ridiculous conspiracy theories out of nothing (the “Muslim caliphate”, for example). He needs serious help on just about every single issue regarding an actual train of thought.
P.S. I’m not crazy about Olbermann these days, either. After his leaving MSNBC, I’ve noticed his arrogance and attempt at childish name calling and trying to make enemies (in what seems) just for the fun of it. He’s just looking for as much attention as possible, just like Beck, and since Olbermann is going to be on a network nobody knows about, he’ll have to get attention desperately.
June 8, 2011 at 10:01 pm
^ You may not like Beck but I don’t think you’ll find many people doubting his intelligence. Some of his “conspiracy theories” may seem far fetched but they’re not just conspiracy theories, they’re well thought out theories. Theories aren’t facts, (yet) they’re theories.
Like him or not, he knows his history.
June 8, 2011 at 10:13 pm
The Crazy sometimes comes with The Intelligence. I’ve known some pretty smart mental cases. Beck and KO appear to be two of them..
June 8, 2011 at 11:14 pm
My take, and it’s a repeat: Beck must fancy himself a preacher in the “End Times” mode. Anyone of the great revivalists who made their mark in England and the US like, Spurgeon, Billy Graham, Chuck Swindoll, et al., he, Beck, loves that theme or his producers do.
His admonition to “America” to tune into his shows is laughable each time he did it/does it.
Beck did so much better by crying faux tears; I tuned in just to see if he would try that schlock again; As Tina Brown pointed out (those magazine editors, always spoil the fun) “what will he do the next time?”
Well Tina, you’ve been answered: He got non-renewed or quit.
Tina Brown, the former editor of the Tatler and Vanity Fair knows good copy and a story when she sees one; I’ll never forget her cackling laugh when she saw Beck attempt to put his “Act” on the innocent American Public as he laid claim to them as part of his “followers”; just before his call to America to meet him on the Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
This man is audacious if anything.
One who recognizes talent, Bill O’Reilly has cast off having Beck his perennial side-kick for his weekend “shows” as he announced tonight his next show will be with Bill Murray. (that was fast…Beck has been displaced as his “bold fresh partner” that fast.
Murray feigned not knowing that that was going to happen….((((boom)))).
Perhaps Beck, the big goof will be seasoned into a reliable purveyor of truth that he claims to give on a daily basis.
I believe You Tube captured that moment with Tina Brown and Moning Joe…just like 9-11 I happened to be awake and was fortunate to see each “live” ;
Beck Crying and morning joe cackling laughter was great TV. at Beck’s expense; however, he was so clueless he didn’t appreciate its absurd juxtaposition.
And, this guy expects people to pay for his streaming?
Only if he cries and explains it because he loves the country…;howver, we’ve seen this one before.
Well Beck, I’d step up to the pay window if you can top that one!
But then that was Tina Bown’s statement: “how’s he doing to top that one?”
And, Tina knows stuff like that as the former Editor of Vanity Fair.
At least one thing is clear: He desires the role.
June 8, 2011 at 11:28 pm
June 8, 2011 at 11:30 pm
Vick’s Vapo Rub makes it all work for Beck’s tears.
June 9, 2011 at 3:16 am
I’ll concede to you, LS, that he knows history, but he doesn’t really report it accurately. He spins and flips things on their head into a completely opposite universe to fit his agenda. I guess all pundits do that (to a point), but he makes a very lazy attempt at it.
June 9, 2011 at 7:03 am
He knows his history and he does report it accurately, the problem is that he will take history and use it as evidence for his theories, some of them have actual merit and some of them are just crazy. I Stopped watching Beck though, I like his energy and how he used to be funny but now he is too preachy for me.
June 9, 2011 at 8:26 am
I’m not a huge Beck fan although I used to listen to him fairly frequently before his TV days. I rarely watch him on FNC. But, his book has definitely got me thinking. It’s pretty far out there, which he admits, but I don’t think it’s as far out there as most would hope.
June 9, 2011 at 8:33 am
He’s a charlatan. And just could not convince the master Roger Ailes to double up on his investment. And, Bill O’Reilly has thrown him over for Dennis Miller again , too
Believe what you need to believe. .
June 9, 2011 at 8:40 am
I assume that O’Reilly’s public appearance tours are sanctioned by his network and, since Beck is leaving the network, he’s also off the “Bold Fresh” tour.
June 9, 2011 at 9:18 am
whitneymuse Says:
June 9, 2011 at 8:33 am
Is that just a general rant or were you addressing me or someone else?
June 9, 2011 at 10:18 am
Bill’s no dummy and won’t mess his own nest with a messy fellow host that can’t pull the numbers for his own ratings. And, that’s good for Bill; my theory is that when Bill quit his radio show, he had all those subscribers on his pay for podcast and he practiced some risk management by offering a “free” subscriber membership to his old radio subs; thereby making a seamless transition from his radio program subs.
What he didn’t say was he was losing his ” ” to Limbaugh…and guess who jumped into the breach in my market but good old Glenn Beck.
Of whom I don’t listen to anyway; and I also don’t listen to Limbaugh because I live in the shadow of his signal and the local radio station isn’t all that interested in rectifying it either.
Besides too many inputs are beyond my mind’s ability to juggle with alacrity.