I knew the reviews for Fox’s “1/2 Hour News Hour” were bad, but I didn’t know they were this bad:

When the “1/2 Hour News Hour” made its debut in February, the weekly satire was panned by critics, gaining the unwelcome distinction of being the worst-rated program ever on MetaCritic.com. But it was well-received by viewers, and on many weekends it was Fox News Channel’s highest-rated half hour among adults ages 25 to 54.

Indeed, the Metacritic page for the show summarizes the overall tone of the reviews as “extreme dislike or disgust.” Ouch.

Postscript: The Times fails to make clear that being Fox’s “highest-rated half hour among adults ages 25 to 54” on “many weekends” does not mean a lot of people are watching. For instance, only 224,000 people age 25-54 watched the show last week.