Left leaning ESPN Murdered in Ratings Last Year, Now Nearly Dead

[rangerrebew]

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Left leaning ESPN Murdered in Ratings Last Year, Now Nearly Dead

One struggles to put into proper perspective the sheer collapse that has befallen the “worldwide leader.” Yet, while the final numbers from 2016 start to come in, that perspective has started to take shape.

Like this, from the sports media site Awful Announcing, “ESPN remained the dominant sports cable network leader in 2016 despite a 9 percent drop in each prime time and total-day viewership year-to-year. Its top program “Monday Night Football” averaged a 9-year low for its season and was down 12 percent from its previous year (11.4 million vs. 2016’s 12.9 million). Due to the unprecedented 2016 presidential election, ESPN (1.95 million) lost its cable prime time leader crown to Fox News Channel (2.466 million) by a margin of nearly 500,000 viewers.”

http://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2017/01/left-leaning-espn-murdered-in-ratings.html

[Gefn]

According to an article I read last week by Bloomberg, HGTV is doing better than ESPN now - they took over their ratings.

[jmyrlefuller]

And with all those billions they're paying for near-monopoly over college sports (not to mention their pro rights) hanging like a millstone around their necks, too. Such a shame. 

[geronl]

And with all those billions they're paying for near-monopoly over college sports (not to mention their pro rights) hanging like a millstone around their necks, too. Such a shame. 

probably could buy the whole NFL for the price of those TV rights

[goatprairie]

I think sports networks getting themselves involved with politics or topical news is stupid to the nth degree. I wonder how much of ESPN's drop in ratings was due to egregiously idiotic stunts like pronouncing Bruce Jenner hero of the year  or whatever award they gave him for dressing up in drag?
Maybe they should call their network SJWN.

[mountaineer]

I think sports networks getting themselves involved with politics or topical news is stupid to the nth degree. I wonder how much of ESPN's drop in ratings was due to egregiously idiotic stunts like pronouncing Bruce Jenner hero of the year  or whatever award they gave him for dressing up in drag?

Agree. It also doesn't help to know that ESPN hosts like Kornheiser and Wilbon of Pardon The Interruption are golfing butties (yes, I meant to say that) of B. Hussein Obama.

[goatprairie]

Agree. It also doesn't help to know that ESPN hosts like Kornheiser and Wilbon of Pardon The Interruption are golfing butties (yes, I meant to say that) of B. Hussein Obama.

Yes, Kornheiser is a huge lib and given to making occasional stupid anti-conservative statements. Wilbon is a goofy, semi-racist, look-at-me-I'm-black nitwit.
But Kornheiser does have a sense of humor and writes a funny sports column. He was the reason I used to watch PTI, but no more.
They had a show after the last Super Bowl where Wilbon started railing about someone who had criticized Beyonce's racist, anti-cop performance at halftime.  He then stated that race takes a part in EVERY!!! part of American life.  Kornheiser sat back and mostly said nothing implicitly agreeing with the idiot Wilbon.
Now they don't make stupid statements about race all the time, but they and  the morons on the other talk show before them constantly make racial comments and announce how black they are how racist is Evil Whitey.
At some point you just can't take it anymore.

[mountaineer]

This morning on ESPN's "Mike and Mike" program (on radio and also shown on TV), the hosts were talking to Little Bobby Costas about whether Curt Schilling belonged in baseball's hall of fame. They were unanimous in their belief that his on-field exploits qualified him for the honor, but all three expressed reservations solely on the basis of Schilling's conservative political views, expressed in his post-baseball life.

Little Bobby Costas called those views "wacky." Nevertheless, Little Bobby conceded that Schilling belonged in the Hall, as the program's tweet shows:

Mike & Mike ‏@MikeAndMike 1h1 hour ago

"If I had a vote, I'd always vote for Curt Schilling. His postseason record is 11-2. He was dominant in the World Series."

- Bob Costas

He cited another stat about strikeout to walk ratio, the best in history - which certainly causes one to ponder what is a prerequisite for election to the hall if being the best ever isn't?

Just another example of ESPN's pathetic slide to leftist mediocrity.

[geronl]

ESPN (ABC-Disney) receives more than $5 a month from every cable-satellite subscriber. They don't even need viewers

[GrouchoTex]

I used to thing that there "nothing happens outside of New York and Boston" attitude on their talk shows was bad enough.
As they started becoming more political, they have been even harder to listen to.