Glenn Beck’s inability to get more than 700 people in an auditorium that seats 8,000 is just one indicator that he’s more of a media phenomenon than a real one. With two million or so viewers, Beck is the second most-watched show on cable news, but that’s like being number two in the tallest midget contest. He has less than half the viewership of SpongeBob SquarePants, and the top-rated cable show (the Saints/49ers game), had seven times as many people watching. Compared to broadcast TV, even the 25th-ranked show last week (Undercover Boss) had 6 times the viewership (10 million more people) than Beck’s most-watched broadcast.
Like number one Bill O’Reilly and the rest of cable news, Beck’s viewership is skewed to an older demographic. No wonder most of the ads are for low-rent stuff like Goldine or hip replacement litigation.