Imus ratings have nowhere to go but up

Given what I've just been through with the Fox News publicity department, you would think I would find something else to write about. But I can't help it: David Hinckley left the most important detail out of his story yesterday on the first-week ratings for "Imus in the Morning" on Fox Business.

Yes, the I-man beat CNBC's morning program with his (admittedly modest) five-day average audience of 148,000 for the simulcast of his WABC radio show on FBN. And yes, that is (as Hinckley notes) "a little less than half the number he averaged when he was on MSNBC."

But the most important thing got left out — FBN is only in 55 million homes, and CNBC is in 100 million homes, according to Kagan research. So Imus is beating his competition on CNBC with one spindly, decrepit arm tied behind his back.

And that begs the question: Who's the real target here?

I still maintain, despite the denials of FBN GM Kevin Magee, that it's "Morning Joe" — the MSNBC show that succeeded "Imus in the Morning" and was incontestably influenced by it — that the new "Imus" show has its sights set on. Last week "Joe" averaged 358,000 homes, which means if FBN can scale up to the household level of MSNBC (96 million), it's game on.

This, by the way, was exactly the game we played a decade ago, as it became clear that Fox News Channel would overtake CNN in the ratings once it achieved universal carriage. And in light of the reports that Lou Dobbs is preparing to jump to Fox Biz, it does make you wonder if what we have here is the Fox News equivalent of ESPN2. (Hey, what's Suzy Kolber doing?) It makes you wonder how many of those channel spots currently reserved for the now-doomed Fox Reality Channel are going to flip to Biz. (UPDATE: The answer is none!) It makes you wonder what will happen to "Imus in the Morning's" numbers once the rest of the FBN schedule starts to get some numbers, any numbers.

I don't think the I-Man cares about beating Scarborough per se. The host of "Morning Joe" has given props to Imus in the past. This is about sticking it to MSNBC. And if we read between the lines of this morning's "Imus in the Morning" on FBN, it would appear the old coot agrees with me.

Don Imus: So I'm reading the paper this morning -- I'm wondering about our ratings at the Fox Business Network and how these other people feel. I would remind you that we've been on only seven or eight days. We are already kicking CNBC's ass. And I would also remind you we are not on Cablevision. When Cablevision puts us on --

Charles McCord: Forget about it.

I-Man: -- on Long Island and New Jersey and other places around the country, it's over!

Chuck: Open the floodgates.

I-Man: And here's why it's over. Because they're stupid. They are stupid, the people they have on are stupid, and people hate them. They've been winning by default. And why? Because I was over there on Hee Haw! (Everyone laughs.) Wasn't a thing I could do about it then.

He also mentioned "Morning Joe" by name -- not in a mean way but perhaps, unconsciously, to let us all know he was thinking of it.

Previously on TV Barn, I wrote Imus off way too soon. Which was dumb, because he's obviously one of my favorite people to write about.