[lbo-talk] Obama infomercial has higher ratings than World Series & Idol

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Fri Oct 31 00:36:46 PDT 2008


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/politics/31rate.html

The New York Times

October 31, 2008

Infomercial for Obama Is Big Success in Ratings

By BILL CARTER

Television networks needed a hit, and Barack Obama gave them one.

An infomercial on behalf of Mr. Obama was a smashing ratings success on

Wednesday night, proving to be more popular than even the final game of

the World Series -- and last season's finale of "American Idol." The

audience for Mr. Obama's program far exceeded the expectations of

television executives -- and many political pundits who questioned

whether Mr. Obama was engaging in overkill in buying a half hour on so

many networks.

Mr. Obama's 30-minute commercial, which played on seven networks,

broadcast and cable, was seen by 33.55 million viewers, according to

figures released by Nielsen Media Research. On the three broadcast

networks that carried the special, the audience totaled more than 25

million, easily surpassing the number for the last World Series game on

Fox, which averaged 19.8 million viewers. The special was also

available on Univision, and three cable networks, MSNBC, BET and TV

One.

"I was shocked by the number Obama was able to draw," said Leslie

Moonves, the chairman of CBS. "It's just a stunning number."

On CBS, the infomercial was seen by about 8.6 million viewers, a number

that topped the show CBS usually runs on Wednesday night at 8, "Old

Christine," which averages about 7.2 million.

On NBC, the disparity was even greater. Its regular show there, "Knight

Rider," has been averaging just under 7 million viewers. Mr. Obama

pulled in 9.8 million for his half-hour special.

MSNBC, where the Obama campaign bought the half hour at the last minute

because ABC decided to stick with its hourlong show, "Pushing Daisies,"

improved by more than 50 percent over usual audience totals.

MSNBC drew 3.5 million viewers with the Obama program; its average for

that half hour (which is when it runs its most popular show, "Countdown

with Keith Olbermann") is 2.1 million.

As for ABC's decision not to allow Mr. Obama to buy the half-hour: that

did not turn out well. "Pushing Daisies" attracted only 6.7 million

viewers, which means it was beaten by each of the broadcast networks

carrying Mr. Obama.

BET and TV One also topped their usual audiences. BET had 714,000

viewers; its average for Wednesday at 8 is 473,000. TV One had 307,000

viewers, better than its average of 198,000.

The only networks with slightly lower totals than average were Fox,

which has an especially strong show on Wednesdays at 8, "Bones," and

Univision, the Spanish-language network, which offers telenovelas.

The viewer total for Mr. Obama's program also dwarfed the number of

people who tuned in to see the last significant paid political program

in a presidential election, Ross Perot's purchase on three networks on

Nov. 4, 1996. The total audience for that half-hour was 22.7 million.

During a season where television hits are hard to find, one NBC

executive suggested jokingly Wednesday that Mr. Obama might be invited

back to fill the 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot on a regular basis.



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