David Gregory's "Meet The Press" Ratings Hit New Low — The Sunday Morning Horse Race Is On

If the Sunday morning TV throne is empty, then the race for the crown is on.

NBC's "Meet the Press" suffered its lowest ratings since David Gregory became moderator last week, dipping below the 3 million viewer mark for the first time since August 19, 2007*.

"Meet" averaged 2.97 million total viewers for the May 10 broadcast, which featured Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Steve Coll and Andrea Mitchell.

Meanwhile, CBS' "Face the Nation," which featured an interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney, averaged 2.74 million total viewers, and ABC's "This Week," which featured interviews with National Security Adviser Jim Jones and Senator John McCain, averaged 2.62 million total viewers (its lowest delivery since August 17, 2008). "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace averaged 1.32 million total viewers.

Compared to this same week last year, "Meet the Press" is down 28% in total viewers, while "Face the Nation" is up 17%, "This Week" is up 4%, and "Fox News Sunday" is up 14%. And compared to the May 3 show, "Face the Nation" has slashed its viewing gap with "Meet" by 69% (230,000 viewers compared to 740,000 viewers), while "This Week" has cut its viewing gap with "Meet" by 38% (350,000 viewers compared to 560,000 viewers)

In the Adults 25-54 demographic, all four shows were down compared to the same week last year, with "Meet the Press" averaging 1 million viewers (-35%), "This Week" averaging 800,000 viewers (-16%), "Face the Nation" averaging 760,000 viewers (-6%), and "Fox News Sunday" averaging 454,000 viewers (-4%).

Last month, Wallace told the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz that "the throne is empty" (in regards to Tim Russert's successor as the Sunday morning TV king). The LA Times that same day focused on Stephanopoulos as the main threat to NBC's ratings dominance. Last week, the LA Times wrote that "Meet the Press" may soon lose the top spot in the Sunday morning ratings.

*"Meet the Press" did average 2.17 million total viewers on June 8, 2008, but it was only at 86% coverage then and thus is not a fair comparison.

Comments

[trinidadgirl]

Actually, thinking in depth, how about some diversity?. The world is a global village with a rainbow peopled America.
Therefore, go for it NBC, be brave and forward thinking.
A person of colour?.............a woman, .....a woman person of colour?

[Wozzeck]

Why are they stalling around? Larry Craig needs a job. He takes a wide stance on the issues, or is it tissues?.

[Pretrib]

I am a conservative, but Meet The Press was the only network news show I would TIVO and watch every week when Tim Russert was there. I really miss Russert. Even though I know Russert was not a conservative, he at least made an effort to be fair and balanced to both sides of the aisle. David Gregory, like most of his NBC colleagues, has never been like that. He will continue to struggle. He is too biased. I have been watching since Gregory took over. His show just does not measure up to what Russert used to do. I will probably stop watching/TIVOing it.

[trinidadgirl]

The ones that have some semblance of relevance in the spectrum of anchors -.
Fareed Zakaria, Lawrence O'Donell, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow!
For a show like MTP........................Lawrence O'Donell, seeing that the others have their niche already!

[harhar2]

I think all of these people would be a much better choice than Gregory, but I'm thinking O'Donnell really needs a show and he'd be great! He has a very smooth delivery, guts, and smarts.

[politicali]

YES!!! He is the man!

[noudidnt]

He's a conventional wisdom parrot. He's boring and lacks any real political instinct or substantive analysis. Dump him.

[Colmore]

They should change the name to "Meet The Has-Beens" since all they have on are old time, worn out repubs. Is Gregory even AWARE the we now have a democratic president? He is lost in the past, still licking repub., boots, dreaming about dancing with MC Rove. He sucked at that, too.

[minkia]

Didn't see that one coming (sic)! He is boring, asks dumb questions and has little respect for his guest's opinion. And he is no pleasure to watch either. Good riddance, I'd hoped they'd give it to Chuck Todd.

[Skyhawk]

Dump him hire Lawrence O'Donnell!

[IowaKid]

Or Gwen Ifil

[Leslie Keyes]

I agree - Joe Scarborough was so harsh to him this morning - LD's the smartest one out there IMHO.

[Wozzeck]

Saint Russert wasn't.

[Leslie Keyes]

I never liked David Gregory even on his earlier show, and have not watched MTP since he came on. David Shuster was better on 1600, who needs a 2nd hour of hardball? and now the Ed Show as a replacement for that is horrible. MSNBC/NBC is making really bad programming choices. MTP should have been given to Chuck Todd, although he's declined in appeal as a wh corr. Lawrence O'Donnell maybe? I am watching much more local programming these days.

[trinidadgirl]

Leslie....Sorry, but Chuck Todd has disappointed since his numbers thing during the primary!
NO Chuck Todd please!

[Leslie Keyes]

ok - i'll settle for Lawrence :-) - but really , anybody but David Gregory. The only thing DG I like is Dolce and Gabbana

[Poolorie]

i have to agree trini. Chuck Todd does not excite me. Just say "NO" to Todd

[scorpioleidy]

Correction - (haven't had coffee yet ...)

I'm shocked!!! ;-) Now, NBC, do you get the message: replace Gregory NOW before he loses all of Tim's audience. (I haven't watched since TR left us, and I know many others who don't watch anymore - primarily because of DG.)

[scorpioleidy]

I'm shocked!!! ;-) Now, MSNBC, do you get the message: replace Gregory NOW before he loses all of Tim's audience. (I haven't left since TR left us, and I know many others who don't watch anymore - primarily because of DG.)

[gallo146]

I was a faithful watcher of MTP and quit watching MTP about a month ago. NBC is hitting a new low with Gregory at MTP. I figured out that Gregory is a VERY PRO-Bush REpublican without personality for that caliber of Sunday talk show. Not enough gravitas. If i had stocks in GE i would have sold them just because of letting management make such atrocious decision of allowing Mr. Gregory ruin their premier program.

[ConnorMarc]

Does anyone reading this article and page know a site that reports daily, weekly or monthly ratings for these types of tv shows...and/or radio shows as well? Preferably for free.

[lldorward]

Forget 'em all -- they're all annoyingly superficial talking heads. Fareed Zakaria's GPS is the one to watch for intelligent, meaningful analysis and commentary.

[Wozzeck]

See FAIR's article "Fareed Zakaria, Spokesperson for the Global Elite"
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3593

[Wiseup2Day]

People are sick of the amins stream media..and their propaganda..and whether you like it or not..Fox does have both sides of views on..and even when they make an attempt at having both sides..they pick a weak person to present the other side..heck even Fox and Friends in the morning get's more people than Chris Matthews or Morning Joe..it's getting embarrasing.

[cyoohoos]

Faux doesn't have both sides of anything. Please, don't insult us. I'm not defending the main networks, but you can't use Faux News as a standard any news network should adhere to.

[trinidadgirl]

Wiseup- Wise up to note that many people don't get MSNBC in their package. That is the truth!

[RealistDem]

So Fox has beck, Oriley and Hannity on daily. Which one represents the democratic side?????