360: By The Numbers…
The New York Observer’s Rebecca Dana writes in a must read about how Anderson Cooper’s name recognition and celebrity hasn’t transformed into ratings success…
Mr. Cooper squats in a giant billboard opposite Fox News Channel headquarters on 47th Street, appears on Oprah, writes a column for Details, headlines his own blog, sustains many others and in May gave the graduation speech at his alma mater. 60 Minutes found room for him, even as it was crowding out Dan Rather. There’s buzz he might inherit the World News Tonight anchor chair some day. There’s buzz he might climb the ranks at CBS, and more buzz on top of that, so much that it seems to have drowned out the little voice of Nielsen.
“I just don’t get it,” said one cable news executive. “I watch the show, and there’s nothing there for me. All of a sudden, I’m looking at the upfront for CBS, and he’s one of the faces of 60 Minutes. One of the three faces of 60 Minutes! How did that happen? It keeps rolling along, this media-sensation thing.”
AC = Media created star/hype shoved down our throat.
Comment by Lurker — June 28, 2006 @ 6:07 am
AC isn’t bad at some things…..But, his obvious weakness is breaking news with too many “uhh’s and ummm’s”. Which is amplified by all the print media coverage he gets. Perhaps he’s in the wrong role at CNN because on the job training doesn’t seem to be working. However, by this time next year will give a better view of his ratings success or failure.
Comment by Terance — June 28, 2006 @ 8:05 am
Lurker: You are absolutely, positively correct.
And ditto for Soledad O’Brien!
Comment by Ira — June 28, 2006 @ 11:57 am
I think the article is bogus.The data comes from TV
Newser and it appears a lot of people don’t realize
TV Newser is averaging 2 hours, not splitting the hours
as Nielsen does(primetime is from 8pm-11pm).Anything
past this time is not counted as a part of primetime.
Geez I am in college and under 20 and know that.I
think you guys don’t understand something,the top
ratings does not mean you are the most popular.There
are other factors that determine that.For example:google
hits,how many magazines one can sell,the people the public
have an interest in, the likablity factor and many others.
I do not think Aaron Brown could be doing better against Greta. I think she beat him by a million plus night after
night, it’s a different story now.For some strange reason, I get the feeling that there a lot of haters out there when
it comes to AC(jealousy and then some).Anyone with half
a brain would not consider him anchor/journalist lite.
Give it up guys, he is not going anywhere and he will be
around for a long time considering he is only 39.
If you guys want cred, at least admit you don’t like
the guy.Besides the new AC 360 has only been around
since November 7, 2005.The show has not been around
for a year and you guys expect for him to be topping
Greta and Bill. Reality check! Question : If AC is
performing so badly why is FNC and ther cronies so
concerned and mounting a smear campaign.Hate will
never win and you can bet FNC is concerned about
how he is performing against Greta.All the data
shows it took five years for FNC to top CNN.Hey there
was even a time we Keith at Countdown use to take shots
at Anderson Cooper.We all know how that turned out.
By the way take a look at the breaking news numbers
the other night for AC(the Florida arrests).Why do you
think Roger Ailes is angry.I find it strange that when
newspapers always try to attack Cooper when it comes
to ratings and none of the others.Anyone with a calculator
and minimal math skills can figure June was not the
best month for FNC or MSNBC,CNN was okay.Geez,you certainly
can’t give any credence to anything you read these days.
Somehow if history is the key, Anderson Cooper has
some suprises for us all.He is too successful for
his own good and so many people just can’t live with that.
He connects with my generation because he is the cool
uncle we can relate to and he seems normal and not so
full of himself.Lets face it, Olbermann,O’reily,Greta,Cosby
Zahn and a host of others we don’t care for period.I
don’t think you would find any of their shows on Youtube
or dicussions about the stories on the programs all over
the web.Wake up to the 21 century.There is a whole world
out there and I doubt if most of you guys are average
viewers.I will say this, Cooper’t ratings will eventually
go up and then things will get real interesting.I think
the day is coming sooner than we think when AC tops
Greta(and I will check in at that time).It’s all in
the data. All it takes is a math to notice the obvious.
Hey guys, people are not clueless.You can pretty much
tell TV Newser and FTV and some bloggers here hate
Anderson Cooper, at least be honest your words give
you away. And you only show up to take shots at people
and praise the network you like or work for.
If you guys would actually do some research, you would
discover that Cooper is not an anchor in training.I
guess ABC News does not matter.
Comment by future tv mogul — June 28, 2006 @ 2:23 pm
” Hey guys, people are not clueless.You can pretty much
tell TV Newser and FTV and some bloggers here hate
Anderson Cooper, at least be honest your words give
you away.”
Check out the latest TVNewser, which pretty much debunks her entire premise. Specifically “It takes a pretty wild imagination to think Cooper is doing poorly. In June, he “was within 15 percent of Greta’s ratings” in the demo, a CNN tipster notes. “That is the narrowest gap of any CNN show and FAR closer than Aaron Brown ever came to Greta (except the month of Katrina when, oh yeah, Anderson co-anchored it.)”"
Comment by Arthur — June 29, 2006 @ 1:53 am