Marta
>[dunno who this is...]
>
><http://www.allyourtv.com/0203season/news/02252003donahue.html>
>
>Commentary: The Surrender Of MSNBC
> by Rick Ellis, Wednesday, February 25th, 2003
>
>While the official announcement wasn't a surprise to anyone working at the
>network, MSNBC officially canceled the primetime show "Donahue" on
>Tuesday, citing disappointing ratings.
>
>And in fact, if you look at the raw ratings numbers, the struggling news
>channel may have a point. Originally conceived as a liberal alternative to
>the popular O'Reilly Factor, the show started slow and never recovered.
>During this month, a "sweeps" period in which ratings are watched closely
>to set advertising rates, "Donahue" averaged 446,000 viewers. O'Reilly
>drew 2.7 million viewers, up 28 percent from February 2002, according to
>Nielsen Media Research.
>
>But as it turns out, the picture isn't as clear as it initially seems.
>
>While "Donahue" does badly trail both O'Reilly and CNN's Connie Chung in
>the ratings, those numbers have improved in recent weeks. So much so that
>the program is the top-rated show on MSNBC, beating even the highly
>promoted "Hardball With Chris Matthews."
>
-- Marta Russell Los Angeles, CA http://www.disweb.org