Donahue a flop?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Aug 14 09:31:37 PDT 2002


New York Daily News - August 14, 2002

Donahue ratings grim for MSNBC

One month after launching a new prime-time lineup crowned by talk show veteran Phil Donahue, MSNBC is still struggling in the ratings and has seen "Donahue" get crushed by CNN's "Connie Chung Tonight."

The mood at MSNBC has turned from hopeful to grim over the last four weeks, insiders said, as Donahue's ratings spiralled down, last week falling to 393,000 viewers from a start of 660,000 viewers. For the month, Chung beat Donahue by 44%. Both shows still lag far behind Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."

Donahue was to be the cornerstone of a new strategy at MSNBC, which after floundering in the shadow of Fox News Channel and CNN, finally got the attention of General Electric, which co-owns the network with Microsoft.

With backing from GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt, MSNBC locked in Donahue at $1 million a year and heralded the show's debut with flashy ads featuring Aretha Franklin. The moves spooked CNN execs, who saw MSNBC threatening their No. 2 ranking and were troubled by Donahue's strong start.

MSNBC also hired ex-New York Post editor Jerry Nachman, who serves as editor in chief and has his own show at 7 p.m. That, too, has failed to make a dent on CNN's "Crossfire."

MSNBC prime time chief Phil Griffin called the month-long ratings performance "irrelevant" and said the net is committed to the lineup.

He said it's too soon to judge the new shows, especially because August is not a high point for news viewing, and said MSNBC "has gotten only encouragement" from the top brass at NBC. Donahue has more than doubled the 8 p.m. ratings over last year, though ratings are up across the board for cable news.

While MSNBC's numbers are weak, from GE's perspective, it still serves as a means of spreading the costs of NBC News, said Sanford Bernstein media analyst Tom Wolzien.

"We're not worried," Griffin said. "If (Fox News chief) Roger Ailes judged O'Reilly after four weeks, O'Reilly would be selling hot dogs in Times Square."



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