Like the scary right-wing chain e-mails of the AOL era, Fox News dominates among senior citizens. The New York Times reports today that “for six of the last eight years, Fox News has had a median age of 65-plus and the number of viewers in the 25-54 year old group has been falling consistently, down five years in a row in prime time, from an average of 557,000 viewers five years ago to 379,000 this year.” While the 25 to 54 group, a.k.a. the “demos” in TV-speak, is the most sought-after, Fox’s bottom line has not been affected. Yet. A sort-of-revitalized CNN is gaining a bit in the ratings, while the “downward trend in younger viewers seems to be accelerating at Fox News,” perhaps prompting the network to give top-billing to younger blondes like Megyn Kelly and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. In the worst-case scenario, all of Fox’s viewers eventually die off and the immortal Bill O’Reilly is left shouting at no one for eternity.
