FOX News trounced its cable news competitors with limited coverage of Senator Teddy Kennedy’s death.
The LA Times reported:
Fox News maintained its top ranking among the cable news channels Wednesday as its competitors turned most of their coverage over to the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. The event didn’t prove to be a major draw for viewers, however. Fox, which covered the story in a more limited fashion, drew an average of 1.37 million viewers throughout the entire day and 2.67 million viewers during prime time, according to Nielsen Media Research.
CNN, which usually dominates during major breaking news events, averaged 711,000 viewers overall and 1.19 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC pulled in 506,000 viewers throughout the day and 984,000 in prime time.
In the key 25- to 54-year-old advertising demographic, Fox had double the audience of its competitors in prime time.
On network television, the Teddy Kennedy special’s also flopped.
Both CBS and ABC’s Kennedy specials were duds:
At 8pm, ABC’s Wipeout led the hour with a 2.5/8 rating/share with adults 18-49 and 7.56 million viewers. Second was a recap hour of America’s Got Talent (1.8/6, 6.93M) followed by a Bones rerun (1.2/4, 4.5M) and a Ted Kennedy tribute, Ted Kennedy: The Last Brother on CBS (0.9/3, 4.6M). CW ran an America’s Next Top Model repeat (0.5/2, 1.25M)…
At 10pm a Law & Order: SVU (1.8/5, 6.05M) episode on NBC led the way followed by a CSI: NY (1.6/5, 6.36M) repeat and ABC’s Ted Kennedy tribute, Remembering Ted Kennedy (1.1/3, 3.97M).
With this in mind Legal Insurrection asks an important question:
So, if people are not particularly interested in watching the Kennedy-death television coverage, what does that say about the likelihood liberal Democrats can exploit Kennedy’s death to rally the nation around a Kennedy-care bill?
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