Friday, July 8, 2011

Success! Olbermann’s ratings plunge by 28% in week two

Keith Olbermann is once again demonstrating the same ratings magic that has become his hallmark on stops at every major broadcast and cable network on his resume. Only now he’s demonstrating it on a minor one.

Deadline.com reveals that the more people watch Olbermann, the less people want to watch Olbermann:

Ratings for Current’s new incarnation of Countdown With Keith Olbermann were bound to fall in the show’s second week as the curiosity factor wore off and people began their July 4 vacations. Still, the numbers from last week are bracing: Olbermann attracted an average of 93,000 viewers in its target 25-54 demo, down 29% from the first week. The total audience, at 253,000, was down 28.5%. The numbers account for people who watched the 8 PM ET broadcast live, or the same evening on their DVRs.

Current has little reason to be alarmed just yet. It’s attracting far more than the average of 15,000 viewers who tuned in to the time slot during the four weeks before Olbermann moved in. Last Wednesday’s broadcast handily beat Eliot Spitzer on CNN’s In The Arena …

Apparently, being bested by Olbermann is now the very definition of failure. CNN canned Spitzer about two minutes after reading this ratings report.

… Olbermann has said that he won’t focus on week-to-week ratings while Countdown finds its rhythm, and audience.

Finding a rhythm is a piece of cake for Olbermann. Finding an audience has always proved a lot more elusive.

Source: Deadline.com

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