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

[slc1950]

We're not surprised are we? Only the people that thought he would do a good job are wondering what to do.

Here's what to do: get rid of him, now!! He's the worst. Can't even watch for one second.

[LiberTLover]

If it is only looks and the ability to smile at Republicans while they lie that they want for the position, then Miss California is available to replace him.

[Wozzeck]

The objective of corporate news media (other than making money) is to keep the public disinformed.
We need a law prohibiting defense contractors from owning media.
Media concentration must be reversed.

[blaising]

now you're talking...

[koyak23]

It's not too late to bring in Rachel Maddow. She has more smarts than David,George, and Bob added together. Her recent interview of Pelosi shows that she has the chops to do Serious journalism.

Be bold. Bring some incisive and exciting perspective to Sunday morning talk.

[Bluedanube]

Is t here anyway Gregory could receive a bailout of insight and intelligence. His fawning over Republicans and their insane memes would seem to be taking a toll.

[simplify]

These men may have been journalist at one time or another but not anymore. They are entertainers and thats what they do every Sunday morning. They regurgitate the same news stories we hear during the week and once in a while bring up a few subjects like Cheney to fan the flames of hate and contention.

These shows are of little value

[chronic]

Hey David, do that dance thingy and maybe your ratings would go up.

[indy girl]

Just getting some personality would help. The guy is the very definition of the word "bland".

[plzchuteme]

How many more weeks can the headline, "David Gregory's 'Meet The Press' Ratings Hit New Low," be recycled before Gregory falls into arrears and actually owes viewers to the network?

[BadgerBoy]

These guys are all pretty bad, seem more into kowotwing to their guests.
No one seems to have the guts anymore to question the b.s. coming out of the guests' mouths.
They let them spew their talking points and then tiptoe to some inane question and that's all you get.
There are too many pundits and not enough journalists left in america, but that's what you get with corporate media.

[twofish]

Sam Seder could shake the place up. He could start the show by reading a list of the politicians afraid to come on...

[1PALady]

I think Carlos Watson could do a good job. We need some people of color on some of these Sunday morning shows. Don't we have enough of the same old tired opinions all the time? A person of color would bring new ideas and new people to the table. You cannot keep rehashing the same old people and expect people to keep watching. Carlos is bright, knowledgeable, seems to do his homework and asks tough questions when allowed. Joe keeps him on a leash.

[decolonizeme]

maybe the ratings are down because there's more useful political analysis of today's issues in re-runs with russert.

gregory is the ac360 of sunday morning -- which is why I now sleep in.

[planetjeffy]

like watching dry paint drying

[decolonizeme]

Or as carlin would say, like watching flies f * * k.

[indy girl]

No, David gregory's not even that interesting.

[thenorthshore]

another liberal tool.

time for a promotion

onto msnbcc

look out keff oberland..­.heeeears david...

moving on up...

[thenorthshore]

or that other show with the 'new guy'.

[CitizenSteffie]

It was SHOCKING when NBC announced GREGORY as the MEET THE PRESS moderator. How could GE give this guy the helm of the news division’s premier Sunday money maker? I couldn't believe it, really, I couldn't. Anybody with eyes knew he wasn't up to the job (his MSNBC show was unwatchabl­e.)

THEN. . . .THEN, the MTP producer (Tim's producer for years....) left the show. Proof positive MTP was done; stick a fork in it, the golden goose was cooked but good. (Bye the by she's working for John King's Sunday show on CNN and his show is much better.)

Having said all of that it's obvious Gregory's gotta go!

I believe we, the viewers, GE shareholders, and advertiser shouldn't be alone in our loss. We should be joined in our loss by person responsible for the elevation of David the Gregory and the banishment of Tim’s (successful) long time producer.

I would like to welcome that genius executive to share our pain by having their salary reduced by the amount of lost viewers and ad revenue. Now that's a novel idea - everyone pays a price for humongous F-up's. Maybe it’ll catch on to, oh I don’t know, Wall street, maybe.