The return of CNBC’s swagger…
The New York Times’ Elizabeth Jensen writes about CNBC’s swagger coming back to primetime in programs like Mad Money and Fast Money…
What changed CNBC’s evening fortunes was “Mad Money,” with its host, James J. Cramer, a former fund manager and a founder of TheStreet.com. Mr. Cramer had been a co-host of a more sober CNBC show with Lawrence Kudlow. But in “Mad Money,” which began in March 2005, Mr. Cramer unleashes his inner fund manager, picking winners, trashing losers, accompanied by choruses of “booyah,” flying toy bulls and the occasional thrown chair.
The program is shown first at 6 p.m., then repeated at 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern time. It attracted an audience of 395,000 cumulative viewers a night, on average, in 2006, substantially more viewers than Mr. Miller and Mr. McEnroe drew. Mr. Ratigan, a co-creator of “Fast Money,” calls it “ ‘The View’ for men.” He joined CNBC in 2003, after an eight-year career at Bloomberg, in which he rose swiftly from covering initial public offerings to global managing editor and host of its morning TV program.
Undeterred that Mr. Ratigan’s first effort, “Bullseye,” failed after 15 months (replaced by Mr. Cramer’s show), CNBC now counts on him to anchor the first hour of its top-rated “Closing Bell,” the successful year-old evening news show, as well as “On the Money” and “Fast Money.” Eventually, when “Fast Money” is permanently on the schedule, Mr. Ratigan will not be doing all three.
I’ve always wondered why CNBC didn’t do more consumer-oriented news shows at night. Why not make a show that informs people about personal investments? And didn’t their Ebay documentary get big numbers? That type of programming interests people who are likely to tune in at night and CNBC should do more of those kinds of shows if you ask me.
Comment by Alison — October 2, 2006 @ 9:15 am
#1, the article said that they have 3 docs coming up this year (Spud posted info about one…the American Airlines one coming in a few weeks), so that’s definitely good news.
What I wonder about regarding Fast Money is how they’re going to make this into a daily program. The 4 other guys, Bolling, Macke etc. all have jobs…how are they going to get them all to come after work, everyday, to do this show?
As for where they should schedule the show, I think 7pm ET might be a good timeslot. As the ratings showed, Fast Money’s numbers were “on-par” with Kudlow’s…personally I think that K&C is a much better program to lead out of “Closing Bell” compared to Fast Money.
Comment by Anonymous — October 2, 2006 @ 9:26 am
CNBC, are they still a channel?
Comment by Peter — October 2, 2006 @ 9:57 am
Look at the ratings Peter. CNBC has been creeping back up, often topping HLN and MSNBC, as the stock market has (been creeping back up) in the past several months. A shame that it’s the stock market, and not the quality of the content, that seems to drive CNBC’s success…..or failure.
Comment by erljr — October 2, 2006 @ 11:07 am
Can’t knock CNBC. That’s a $$$ maker. Also don’t just look at the ratings because CNBC is on in trading floors, offices, etc.. where the ratings are not tracked. They get high ad dollars because isn’t their average viewer’s income in the $100,000+ range?
Comment by Lurker — October 2, 2006 @ 1:38 pm
Article is not that accurate. “CNBC now counts on him to anchor the first hour of its top-rated “Closing Bell,” the successful year-old evening news show, as well as “On the Money” and “Fast Money.””
Closing Bell is not the successful year old news show. On The Money is.
Comment by ejknight — October 4, 2006 @ 3:15 pm