Bush Interview Dead Last In Broadcast TV Ratings

[mikenycLI]

Courtesy of Reuters....

Bush Interview Dead Last In Broadcast TV Ratings
By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - On Monday night, the American public was apparently far more interested in new comedies and a blowout football game than their president's take on the state of the international effort to rebuild Iraq.

Data from Nielsen Media Research released Tuesday showed that a one-hour interview with President Bush on Fox came dead last in the hour among the six major broadcast television networks in both total viewers and audiences aged 18 to 49.

The results showed the Bush interview, conducted by Fox News chief correspondent Brit Hume from the Oval Office of the White House, drew an average of about 4.30 million viewers in the hour, with a 1.6 rating and a 5 share in the crucial audience of adults ages 18 to 49.

In Nielsen terms, 1 ratings point equals 1 percent of homes that own television sets, while each share point represents 1 percent of the TVs actually in use to watch programming at a given time.

"That is a sorry state of affairs," said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "I think most people, when they heard that the interview was going to happen, just assumed they weren't going to hear anything new that they hadn't already heard."

The Bush interview trailed an episode of UPN's comedy "The Parkers" and the series premiere of the comedy "Eve," starring the singer of the same name. Those two shows together averaged about 4.49 million total viewers and around a 2.0/6 in the 18-49 group.

The 8 p.m. hour was topped by NBC, which averaged more than 13 million viewers with the reality competition series "Fear Factor."

On April 25, a Friday night, a 9 p.m. "Dateline NBC" special featuring an interview with Bush conducted by NBC anchor Tom Brokaw aboard Air Force One drew 8.80 million viewers and a 2.6/8 in audiences 18 to 49.

"I suppose we shouldn't be surprised," Thompson said. "We've known when people are turning on prime-time for entertainment, they're often looking for something that is an anesthetic, not something that fulfills their civic duty as a voter in the republic."

[Rspaight]

For me, and I know I'm not alone, I just can't stand to watch the guy. His lizard-like tongue darting out, beady little eyes, arrogant smirk, mangled syntax and forced sincerity make me want to heave.

I'll read the stuff afterward, but the actual delivery? No thanks.

Ryan

[Ron]

Maybe because I don't get much of it here, I relish opportunities to see him on the tube. For all the reasons you mention, I find him fascinating. And I haven't been fascinated with a president in this way since Nixon.

But I kinda think the low ratings bode well for him. If people felt betrayed and pissed I think they'd tune in. The low ratings would seem to suggest they're not.