Jim Cramer profile…
Newhouse News Service’s Mathew Futterman has an in depth look at Mad Money with Jim Cramer and its host…
“The reserved Jim Cramer you saw on ‘Kudlow & Cramer’ the past three years, that wasn’t me,” Cramer says calmly during a recent interview on the set of his show at CNBC’s Englewood Cliffs headquarters. “This show is me. This is what it was like at the hedge fund. The screaming, the yelling at the computer monitors as the ticker crawls on the screen. That’s me.”
Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. Does it matter?
Just seven months after the stint with economist Larry Kudlow ended, Cramer and Krakower have created a new format for TV business news by combining elements of a wonky stock show with Jerry Springer and sports talk radio. It has caught the attention of broadcast executives and a far-flung community of amateur investors who greet Cramer with a “Boo-yah, Jim!” when they call in and treat his advice as though it has come from the Temple Mount.
“He brings energy and excitement to investing by injecting the fast-money trader mentality into the buy-and-hold investor,” says Scott Rothbort, a professor at Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business.
“You have to filter out some of the histrionics, but if you listen carefully, his message is to do your homework.”
BOOOOO-YAHHHHHH! Investing is FUN again. Louis Rukeheuser is dead…….long live King Cramer!
Comment by Roger C. — October 30, 2005 @ 9:57 am
Mad Money is actually an enjoyable and informative way for me to end my day. I never understood the value of the show that preceded Mad Money, ie: Bullseye. It seems it was an experiment at bringing in a new face from outside (Dylan Ratigan) and hoping to improve ratings. They tried it. It didn’t work.
Comment by Allen Lee — October 30, 2005 @ 3:50 pm
His ratings are very, very low. What can they do to bring in more viewers?
Comment by ITK — October 30, 2005 @ 5:09 pm
The ratings aren’t low because of Cramer; CNBC’s ratings in general are low, and he seems to be above average for the network.
I used to hate anything to do with business, but finally became interested because of Neil Cavuto’s presentation of mixing business issues with news. Now Cramer is giving us an education on specific stock behaviors and the dealings of these companies. Booyah!
Comment by Missy — October 30, 2005 @ 9:32 pm
Cramer’s ratings are NOT low at all, at least for anything on cable news in general. When you add up the number of viewers from his 6pm, 9pm and 12am ET airings, he nears nearly 400k+ viewers per night (I’m assuming most of them are new viewers, because who’d wanna sit through the same program they just watched 3 hours ago?)
Personally I think that Jim brings a lot of new excitement to CNBC and investment in general. It’s fast-paced, enjoyable and makes you learn a few things. While I really don’t want CNBC to transfer ALL that “Booyah” energy over to the rest of the otherwise rock-steady daytime programming (5am-5pm), I think the rest of their primetime lineup could definitely use that boost (even though at this point I think CNBC is probably quite happy with the ratings its getting with recycled episodes of The Apprentice).
Oh and I absolutely HATE those people who blame Cramer for their losses…first of all, it’s not like he’s holding your hand and FORCING you to buy the suggested stocks. Secondly, he goes on and on and on about DOING YOUR HOMEWORK. Sometimes I watch the after-hours ticker during the 6pm airing and it’s crazy how people start buying the shares in the mentioned companies literally 5 SECONDS after seeing the graphic flash on-air. That’s just insane and you’re setting yourself up for trouble right away.
For any Cramer fans, check out the outstanding feature peace BusinessWeek did on him…well worth your time to read.
Comment by Anonymous — October 30, 2005 @ 10:55 pm
Ooops…I meant to say 300k, not 400k.
Comment by Anonymous — October 30, 2005 @ 10:57 pm
He likes to yell… ALOT. If he’s ACTUALLY like that in person, I wouldn’t work for him. For me, personally, his “booyah” personality is not exciting, it’s grating. But that’s just me.
Comment by Charles — October 31, 2005 @ 12:09 am
a 300-400K audience, and that’s a combined number for more than one airing of the program in one day? That’s really low and not impressive at all. CNBC really is in trouble.
Comment by Roxxy — October 31, 2005 @ 12:42 pm
I agree. Those are low numbers, and it doesn’t matter how you slice it or dice it, it’s low.
Comment by Gregg — October 31, 2005 @ 1:54 pm
There is also a big story / article about him in this week’s Business Week. Cramer graces the cover.
Comment by Anon — October 31, 2005 @ 2:11 pm