Presidential Address to Congress 2-24-09

Advertisements

The Nielsen Ratings for Feb 23 - Mar 1 Top 15 Cable Series shows: "Pres Address/Analysis(s)-02/24/2009" on FOXNC at 10:09 in 5th place, "Obama Address to Congress(s)-02/24/2009 on FOXNC at 9:17 in 6th place, "Obama Cong Address" (2/24/2009) on CNN at 9:15 in 7th place, "Pres Address/GOP Response(s)=02/24/2009" on FOXNC at 10:24 in 9th place, SR/Obama Cong Analysis (2/24/2009) on CNN at 10:09 in 10th place, and "Pres Address Cvg(s)-02/24/2009 on FOXNC at 9:00 in 15th place.

With six of the 15 top cable network spots going to those programs, I guess somebody wanted to see the political speeches.

Oh, yeah...by the way...numbers 2 and 3 were both "WWE Raw" (wrestling). Number 1 was The Closer, #4 was Burn Notice, #8 was NCIS, and ALL of the numbers 11 through 14 were various other episodes of NCIS. Go Ziva!!

 

That sort of reinforces the point others have made and mine too (but not necessarily the selection you quoted). Even though those were all aired on the same date it shows that coverage is readily available on cable. With all of the options to see these speeches it's ridiculous to have to interrupt all of the major networks.

 

If a major network broadcast one hour of black screen and silence, I believe it'd still get a Nielsen's rating higher than many other shows.

When you pre-empt most everything someone might choose to watch, it's probably more likely they'll just leave it on one of the pre-empted channels if they can't find something they desire. Even that can produce ratings. But it doesn't demonstrate anyone's actually attention to the program that's on that they may not have really chosen to watch.

 

I don't think that is a logical assumption at all. I imagine there are more ABC/CBS/NBC affiliates than PBS affiliates in the country and I imagine that making money off of advertising vs pledge drives gives them better equipment with better coverage. I'm not yet convinced that the number of people without access to PBS is 1%.

As for the major networks and their ratings while covering the speeches, they wouldn't preempt regular programming and ad time unless they were going to get something out of it. Even if its just more face time for their news teams or protecting their White House access.

These days, news coverage is all about the bottom line adn not so much about reporting the news.

 

Advertisements

Presidential Addresses have been known to affect pre-empted shows negatively. The episode "The Dregs of Humanity: Part 2" of It's Your Move was to air on January 9, 1985 but was preempted by Ronald Reagan. Rather than shift the schedule to show it the next week, it was skipped. The series' ratings plummeted and it was canceled.

But then that's probably more the network's fault at not rescheduling. It can serve as a litmus test for a TV series though if preemption leads to rescheduling or not.

 

Someone else who remembers It's Your Move.. (I remember the voiceover about the 'best friend' playing soccer.. and I think he was going for a goal.. it freeze frames.. and then it says something like "oh, let him have it", and he makes it..)

oh, and will this thread ever die?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PBS_member_stations
I quit counting at 250 less than halfway through the list. Not counting repeaters. There are 16 stations in my state alone. ABC (3), CBS (3), NBC (4), Fox (4) all in only 7 cities and many of those share the same city.