Bill O’Reilly poked the wrong cable news anchor on Twitter Wednesday.
O’Reilly, the former Fox News host, tweeted about Sean Hannity “kicking butt in the ratings” while adding that CNN’s Jake Tapper was “as low as you can go.”
It was almost too easy for Tapper who shot back 11 minutes later, “Low would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it.”
Sean Hannity kicking serious butt in the ratings. Tapper on CNN as low as you can go.
— Bill O'Reilly (@billoreilly) October 18, 2017
"Low" would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it — humiliated in front of the world. Now THAT would be low. https://t.co/e2d6kOHL7F
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2017
So we checked to see how “low” Tapper’s ratings really were. And, for that matter, where Hannity stands as well. We should add that comparing Tapper’s 4 p.m. show on CNN to Hannity’s 9 p.m. show on Fox News (with a much larger audience overall and millions more available viewers in prime time) is not an apples to apples look.
The Lead with Jake Tapper is averaging 1.053 million total viewers and 286,000 in the demo, year to date. That’s up +21 percent in viewers and up +35 percent in the demo vs. 2016 year-to-date (871,000 / 212,000).
Tapper trails his 4 p.m. Fox News competition, Neil Cavuto (1.723M / 321,000). But Tapper is showing more growth in viewers (Cavuto is up +13 percent), while both are up similarly in the demo (Cavuto is up +34 percent).
As for Hannity, he has also grown the FNC 9 p.m. audience vs. last year, which was then occupied by Megyn Kelly. Since moving to 9 p.m. on Sept. 25, Hannity is averaging 3.163 million total viewers and 692,000 in the demo, up +15 percent in viewers and up +34 percent in the demo vs. the same period last year.