Fox Reality: A Dismal Year

Fox TV, which has stacked its future heavily on reality shows, is having a terrible year. “The network has lost about 8 percent of its viewers from a year ago (8.5 million, down from 9.2 million), but Fox, like NBC and ABC, cares most about viewers between ages 18 and 49 because advertisers pay a premium to reach that group. There, Fox is off even more: 11 percent, dropping to a 3.3 rating from 3.7. A rating point in the 18-to-49 category is worth about 1.3 million viewers. In reality (and that word cuts several ways in Fox’s case), the picture is considerably worse.”