Media Scribbler

For the cable news networks, the national Presidential conventions are like the Olympics in ratings. CNN is going gangbusters with their Democratic National Convention coverage, and pulled in averaged 5.38 million viewers from 10 to 11 p.m. Wednesday, when VP nominee Joe Biden spoke and Presidential nominee Barack Obama made a “surprise” appearance. That was only slightly less than NBC’s 5.8 million viewers for the same time period, and CNN’s average for the night was up 95 percent over their coverage of the same night during the 2004 convention.
Unfortunately for the folks who make the programming decisions at CNN …read more

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CBS is betting that with a hot and heated presidential matchup in the works, they can win their own ratings gold medal on their Web site. Katie Couric has high hopes for her own all-around medal, even if she’s the underdog.
According to TV Decoder, CBS is planning to live-stream additional Couric-anchored coverage. They are only planning to show an hour of her on the network each night, but say she will remain on CBSNews.com and CNet.com for at least another 30 minutes.
I expect other networks will do similar things (and really it’s going to be hard to compete with Anderson …read more

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The showrunners for The Mole 3 were clearly hoping that absence made the heart grow fonder. They probably also wanted us to forget that Anderson Cooper had long since left the building, since a lot of the show’s initial fanbase were mostly watching to see Cooper in his pre-CNN, post-ABC World News Now shot at reality TV presenting.
Unfortunately, neither strategy seems to have worked for The Mole 3, because ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson told “Reality Blurred” that the show will most likely be shelved if the ratings didn’t magically turn around by the end of its run (and they …read more

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