ABC's White House special struggled for viewers

[sisters6]

I would have guessed that this topic would have been a big draw.


http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/06/abcs-white-house-special-struggled-for-viewers.html

June 25, 2009
ABC's White House special struggled for viewers

Obama special President Obama's town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening.

The one-hour ABC News special "Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America" (4.7 million viewers, 1.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) had the fewest viewers in the 10 p.m. hour (against NBC's "The Philanthropist" debut and a repeat of "CSI: NY" on CBS). The special tied some 8 p.m. comedy repeats as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.

The special was shot at the White House and featured the president answering questions about his health care plan. The president's primary message was that those who like their current insurance will be able to keep it and that taking no action will result in higher health care costs.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. But it was also ABC's best showing in that time slot in six weeks.

[Tempest]

7. It beat the pants off of Faux News

They barely get 1 million viewers during that time slot.

[sisters6]

2. Link..........

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/06/abcs-white-house-special-struggled-for-viewers.html

[MarjorieG]

3. I don't think it was promoted, really.

[Uzybone]

19. I agree, I almost didn't know it was being aired.

[mystieus]

20. I didn't know about it. 'til too late

[Cha]

4. Well, that will make

the rw assholes happy 'cause they were bitching about it so much before it happened.

[lindisfarne]

5. Non-cable TV struggles for viewers. Even Cable. There are so many channels, viewers are spread thin.

Apparently the Philanthropist was the highest watch of the free TV channels with 7.6 million or so.
In that context, Obama didn't do bad.
I watched over streaming internet, so I didn't count, nor does everyone watching after the fact (on ABC or YouTube).
Most Americans favor health care reform along what Obama has proposed.

It still was more highly rated than most of ABC's programs at that time!

[bluestateguy]

6. It was very policy wonky

and therein lies the problem with the health care issue: it's a very technocratic, policy wonky issue that is prone to losing people's attention. Conservatives, therefore, simplify everything with bumper sticker phrases like "socialized medicine!"

[Cleita]

8. Compared to the average viewers that show gets normally?

I would wager that they had a larger audience than they usually do. I for one never watch that show, but I did last night.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

11. You're right. Their best audience in 6 weeks, plus the show continued on and beat out Late Night an

the Tonight Show.

[sisters6]

15. Obama and the issue is the issue and should be the draw in and off

itself.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. Also, according to your link, it beat the Late Show and the Tonight Show

when it continued.

[monmouth]

10. People knew Charlie Gibson would be there and tuned out...n/t

[Sebastian Doyle]

13. That wouldn't surprise me.

I watched it, but I had a barf bag on standby the whole time. :puke:

[high density]

12. I only knew about it because I was a political junkie

No big loss if nobody watched. The President did a good job with what he was given but the program had a flawed premise.

[vaberella]

14. I don't see the big deal. Unless you're The Closer, you're not going to have a high viewer list.

And when you come out being politics, you're boring the average American to death.

[FrenchieCat]

16. Love the Headline! They try hard, don't they?

[Oregone]

17. They should of merged it with the launch of Big Brother

Like, 5 minutes of each, back to back, until end. :)

[MadBadger]

18. However, Nightlines edition beat Conan and Letterman with 4.22 Million Viewers

[alsame]

21. The format was awful and people probably tuned out. A real town

hall with 'regular people' would have been much better, IMO. Gibson and Diane Sawyer interjected themselves awkwardly rather than just taking questions from the audience. And Gibson made sure to get the right wing talking points covered.

And instead of an entire audience of average Americans, there were too many industry insiders.

I watched the entire thing because it's one of my primary issues and I want to hear every word the President says about healthcare, but it was boring.