It's taken TCG awhile to make up her mind about Monday night's YouTube debate. But she does know what the American people thought about the debate, at least as they were watching--or not. As we shall see, the Nielsen Verdict was a big thumbs down, despite all the YouTube hoo-haw.
But first, The Cable Gamer was amused by Cal Thomas' syndicated column in which he jibed, "This was not a real debate. This was a boring version of 'American Idol,' or worse, a political rip-off of 'The Price is Right.' (How much do you think each candidate is worth? Come on down!)"
And TCG also got a kick out of Marvin Kitman's scathing commentary in, of all places, the left-leaning Huffington Post. Kitman, the esteemed former TV critic for Newsday, let it rip:
While all eyes were on that pathetic non-debate on CNN Monday night, and all ears were listening to the network's smarmy self-congratulations for staging the You Tube non-debate the rest of the week, another more important debate is going on in the smoke-filled rooms at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I'm talking about Blitzer vs. Cooper. Who should be the moderator-general for the remainder of Campaign 2008?
TCG will return to the issue of La Anderson vs. The Wolfman, and who will smack down (or bitch slap) whom, but for now, I have been mulling over the ratings.
Specifically, TCG wishes to parse this assertion, from CNN's own press release:
"CNN continues the trend of record-breaking debates with Monday night's CNN/YouTube Debate posting the highest P18-34 delivery in cable news history."
This, however, is not a true statement from "the most trusted name in news." CNN did not make cable news history. In fact, the debate was actually rated 9th in 18-34 for cable news. For the record, Fox News had the absolute highest rated debates, ever, back in 2004. So, CNN's claim isn't correct, and its spin is well, false. Other than that, I suppose, it's OK.
Indeed, CNN is down in ratings (P2 25-54 and 18-49) from their last debate, which took place just last month, on June 3rd. And that was also a Democratic debate, too, so it's an apples-to-apples comparison.
From 7-9 pm, CNN had 2,552,000 viewers in P2+, down six percent from that 6/3 Dem debate. In the 25-54 demo, CNN had 831,000 in 25-54 (down 21 percent). In the 18-49 demo, CNN got 663,000 (also down 21 percent).
In other words, CNN 25-54 and 18-49 demos are significantly down compared to their last Dem debate--despite all the YouTube hype and promotion.
