Sean Hannity Ratings Dropped Significantly After 2012 Presidential Election
Sean Hannity lost around half of his audience in the wake of the 2012 presidential election.
The Fox News anchor's Nielsen numbers for "The Sean Hannity Show" dropped quickly after President Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term of office.
So what can explain the drop in viewership for Hannity?
It may have been due to Hannity's very public prediction that Obama would lose in a landslide which kept his numbers high before the election results were announced.
According to Nielsen's figures for the fourth quarter of 2012, Hannity had lost almost half his audience in the weeks following the election.
According to The Seattle PI, Hannity's audience count fell to 1.95 million. He lost more than 50 percent of his viewers in the advertiser's favorite demography of the 25-54 age group.
His regular viewers appeared to change their minds about their new sources after his presidential prediction fell short.
The ratings numbers also found that Hannity's Fox News colleague Bill O'Reilly kept around 70% of his audience.
"The O'Reilly Factor" saw a drop in the number of viewers, but not as many as Hannity's program. O'Reilly's viewers went down to 3.049 million from 4.135 million after the elections.
Fox News rivals at MSNBC and CNN were predominantly able to maintain their audience numbers with hosts such as Anderson Cooper who had little loss in viewers.
Despite the reduced number of viewers, Fox News managed to stay as the top news channel in the U.S. as 2012 was still one of station's best years, according to The NY Daily News.
Hannity's Facebook account talks about his show as the "#1 9 PM primetime show 'Hannity' on the Fox News Channel."
The social media page also states: "'The Sean Hannity Show' is the second most listened to radio talk show in America with roughly 13.5 million listeners a week."
