What’s hot/What’s not: 9/09/07
What’s Hot
FNC’s New Hampshire Debate - This week FNC scored the highest rated debate of 2007 so far when it came to New Hampshire Wednesday…
The CNBC/FBN skirmishing continues to heat up - Fox Business Network still hasn’t launched and CNBC is showing signs of paranoia. This was exemplified by the highly unusual Eric Bolling injunction the network sought using high powerd Manhattan attorneys and was subsequently denied. All for a part time contributor. A tad heavy handed don’t you think?
I thought CNBC was going to be playing this cool since this is really CNBC’s battle to lose as far as I’m concerned and FBN has everything to prove, Roger Ailes’ and Rupert Murdoch’s somewhat dismissive comments over the past few months regarding the Peacock business network nonwithstanding. But CNBC sure doesn’t seem to be acting very cool or very secure right now. This is not a good sign.
Cable News getting re-infected with Anna Nicole syndrome - Rita Cosby and her Anna Nicole book caused an unusually public case of pushback between the various parties involved. And it all played out over the various news nets throughout the week.
What’s Not
Cable News getting re-infected with Anna Nicole syndrome - Her son is dead. She’s dead. The custody battle has been decided. It’s over people. Stop pandering and drop it already! Sheesh…
Using quarter hour ratings data as a PR tool - It’s bad enough when a blog uses quarter hour data provided by a network to gin up some relatively meaningless PR. It’s another thing to put out said data over the air. It’s not just that you’re trying to tout an “almost win” when you didn’t win. It’s the unintended consequence of noting your program had 408,000 demo viewers from 8-8:30 and your competition had 373,000…you just admitted over the air to the audience and advertisers that your show couldn’t hold a lead. If the numbers had been reversed and the competition dropped its lead in the first half hour and you won the second half hour, if you went to air with that you’d still be guilty for touting an “almost win” when you didn’t win but at least you could paste the other guy for blowing his lead. But that didn’t happen here. Maybe this isn’t “Not Hot”, but it’s probably not smart…
(Full Disclosure: ICN is probably as guilty as the next blog. If I dug through the blog I would probably come up with a couple of quarter hour ratings entries of my own. But no more. I won’t be publishing quarter hour data again. I’ve been getting a “ratings and advertiser education” the past couple of weeks from somewhere outside of cable news. It’s been an eye opening experience.)
No ICN for seven days - Bad Spud. Bad, bad Spud…
If I dug through the blog I would probably come up with a couple of quarter hour ratings entries of my own. But no more. I won’t be publishing quarter hour data again.
What? no watching the ratings live minute-by-minute, a la Max Headroom’s Channel 23?
Comment by Arthur — September 9, 2007 @ 6:28 pm
I should have added Rita Cosby to the what’s HOT list, only because of the huge amount of attention paid to her and her book this week…she’s never been more popular!
Comment by Anonymous — September 9, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
Popular? Not the word I would use for her. Her book reviews on Amazon aren’t so hot and they already have used copies for sale cheap, but I am sure it will sell big the first few weeks and then on to oblivion. What surprised me was that Fox had her on so many shows since I don’t think she left on such good terms.
Comment by Sophia — September 9, 2007 @ 7:05 pm
Sometimes I think the bookers at Fox get lazy, so they just book certain people a lot. MSNBC has much lazier bookers, they bring the same people on every hour it seems!
The FNC debate was hot, as will the Iraq interview Monday.
Comment by jmkaib — September 9, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
I’m a bit amused over CNBC’s apparent freaking out over FBN’s impending launch. Of course, it could be because all of their primetime shows regularly scratch in the demo, if not in the overall ratings. Perhaps they have reason to be afraid….
Comment by Laurel — September 9, 2007 @ 9:23 pm
Sophia - Cosby left FNC on good terms. She worked the last few months with no contract, but she left on her own.
Comment by erljr — September 10, 2007 @ 2:36 am
Rita Cosby is in her last seconds of her 15 minutes of “fame”. She has lost her credibility as a journalist and is hoping to cash in on her book before she is put out to pasture.
CNBC is the Dead Man Walking News Channel. They are already dead and are just waiting for FBN to throw the last shovel of dirt over them. Staff is abandoning ship, advertisers are celebrating the opportunity to jump to FBN and viewers will make the jump to FBN on day ONE of the launch and will never return to CNBC again. Local news broadcasts in major cities will have a larger viewership than CNBC post FBN launch. MARK MY WORDS. CNBC and Rita Cosby are DEAD.
Comment by Rita who? CNBC who? — September 10, 2007 @ 12:06 pm
well said #7
Comment by Aaron — September 10, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
I was always mystified by Ms. Cosby… her working on a major network,although she had a very low voice I thought there was something very odd about her speech and mannerisms.As for Anna they gave her a break for a while but when it’s slow they always bring her out for a turn.Who’s next?… Jug and the Holloways in Aruba?
Comment by david — September 18, 2007 @ 9:27 pm
Yeah that sounds like a Cnbc overreaction to Eric Bolling leaving.My thinking is that they treated these traders like “hey kid ya wanna be on Tv?”and probably didn’t pay em much.And were blindsided when another network came with large offer.
Comment by david — September 19, 2007 @ 7:55 am
Yeah that sounds like a Cnbc overreaction to Eric Bolling leaving.My thinking is that they treated these traders like “hey kid ya wanna be on Tv?”and probably didn’t pay em much.And were blindsided when another network came with large offer.
Comment by david — September 19, 2007 @ 7:56 am