'New York Media Diary'

Sunday, October 05, 2008

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US Nominees Enjoy Superbowl Hype, by James Silver, Media reporter in New York, Sky News Online

If you thought politics were a turn-off, think again. Thursday night's well-mannered vice presidential showdown between Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden proved to be a TV ratings winner of Superbowl proportions, with 73m Americans tuning in, according to Nielsen Media Research figures and PBS.

Not only was it the most watched VP debate in history - a whopping 61% higher than the tussle between Dick Cheney and John Edwards four years ago - but, embarrassingly for the main players on the ticket, it easily trounced the 52.4m who saw the first presidential debate a week earlier.

Of the TV Networks, ABC took the top slot with 13.1m viewers, just beating NBC (12.8m) and CBS (11.1m). Of the cable news channels, Sky's sister station Fox News led with 11.1m, while CNN clocked 10.7m.

"This ratings blowout exceeds industry expectations," noted Hollywood Reporter's TV blogger James Hibberd, as if talking about the new season of Lost.

THE RATINGS BONANZA was surely driven by viewers tuning in hoping to witness another Sarah Palin meltdown moment, but only this time ‘live on air’.

For days now, late night TV shows here in the US have been replaying clips of the Republican vice presidential candidate's toe-curling moose-in-the headlights interviews with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, which have also proved to be a ratings hit on the internet.

Out of her depth and flailing on Couric's camera, Palin's performances - and in particular her claim that being Governor of Alaska meant she had foreign policy experience - have turned her into fodder for TV comics and talk show hosts.

It all comes as a welcome triumph for 51-year old Couric, who was dismissed by some a 'news babe' when she took over CBS Evening News full time from gravel-voiced veteran Dan Rather - and his interim, fellow silver-haired, replacement Bob Schieffer - two years ago.

Reportedly on a $15 million-a-year deal, Couric has become the TV News star of the campaign so far and her employer has splashed out on full page advertisements in the main news pages of the New York Times to crow about it.

MEANWHILE, ONE OF the Times' rivals went out of business this week.

After a three-week search for new financial backers, the staunchly conservative - some might say Neo-Con - New York Sun stopped printing last Tuesday, leaving 110 full-time employees hunting for new work at a far from ideal moment.

The skinny broadsheet never really found much of a readership over its seven years in a city dominated by The Times and The Wall Street Journal and was reportedly haemorrhaging money.

It was launched by former Journal reporter Seth Lipsky, with the backing of a group of conservative financiers, initially including the disgraced former owner of the Daily Telegraph, Conrad Black.

Dismissed by a rival editor as "an intellectual vanity publication", Lipsky told this reporter in a telephone interview in 2003 that his newspaper's success would "be measured by whether it achieves both its idealistic and business goals".

Sadly, on the latter point at least, it's fair to say that it failed.

www.jamessilver.net

Posted by James Silver - On Sunday, October 05, 2008

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