Daily Options Report

As great as it is to poke fun at CNBC's ratings slide from last year, I did suspect it was unfair. After all, the world was tuned into the markets as our whole Wall Street Bonus pool was in serious peril. Compared to any year other than 2008, CNBC's numbers actually look fine, as per Clusterstock.

Over a five year time span, the ratings are way up. Here are the numbers according to Nielsen. This is the average number of viewers per hour from 5 AM to 7 PM, in the 25-54 demographic.

• Oct 2005: 41,000
• Oct 2006: 70,000
• Oct 2007: 76,000
• Oct 2008: 150,000
• Oct 2009: 76,000

Since 2005, CNBC ratings have almost doubled. 

Moreover, the network is now flat with 2007, the peak of the bull market. Given the number of folks who have since sworn off stocks forever, this is actually impressive.

I'm not sure if impressive is the word I would use, but not as bad as the yoy comps indicated. I would guess that barring another market melt, it keeps trending lower as any residual viewers who tuned in last year gradually tune out again. Basically, ratings of everything slide over time, it's not even a knock on CNBC to say there's likely will too.