Reader KP reminds TCG about Kiran Chetry. KP recalls Chetry's "very smart and gutsy move"--when she left Fox News and took over as co-host of CNN's "American Morning," pushing aside Soledad O'Brien.
Thanks for the reminder, KP, let's go to the tape--and then look at the ratings!
Back in February and March, TCG was pretty rough on Kiran Chetry, who jumped ship from FNC to CNN. It's a free country, of course, but Chetry did the jumping in an un-ladylike way. At the time, Chetry was working "Fox & Friends" weekend duty. Then her agent, John Ferret--oops, I mean Ferriter--reportedly went to Fox and demanded that Fox push Gretchen Carlson aside from the more prime-time-y "Fox & Friends" weekday gig, to make room for Chetry.
There's nothing wrong with Gretchen of course, but Chetry--or at least Ferriter, speaking for Chetry--wanted the weekday gig. So it was a standoff.
For about two seconds, until FNC chief Roger Ailes told Chetry/Ferriter to take a hike. That's the way Ailes is: He's a tough boss, but a loyal boss, and he expects FNC talent to be loyal, not only to him, but to each other.
But OK, OK, enough background, you might be saying. But doesn't TCG reader KP have a point in observing, "She's the star of her own show now, plus she won't have to muzzle that liberal ideology of her's like she's had to do for the past 6 years at Fox"?
Chetry does have her own show, but the question is, is anybody watching? And so let's look at the ratings. Those cold numbers have a way of chilling all of us, even when we way skimpy Lara Croft-type outfits (and don't ask me why Kiran was dressed up like this, I assume that it was a Halloween Party, but I could be wrong!).
But anyway, here're the cold hard facts: "Fox & Friends" has a 124 percent advantage over "American Morning," in the ratings. For the month of June, for example, according to Nielsen Media Research, "AM" averaged 382,000 total viewers, compared with a total for "F & F" of 855,000.
Ah, but what about the "demo"? You know, the younger viewers, in the 25-54 demographic category so prized by advertisers? On that score, FNC's advantage is even greater: "AM" averaged 139,000 compared with "F & F" getting 340,000. That's a 145 percent advantage.
So what did Chetry get? And what did Ferriter get for his clien? Maybe a little more short-term glory, but I have learned that The Cable Game is like life itself: What goes 'round comes 'round.
And so Chetry should be worried about her reputation. As reader KP observes, Chetry does "appear to be ruthless," adding, "I've heard she has quite a reputation for that anyway, so why not put it to good use?" Well, if one puts morality aside--Chetry/Ferriter did, as we have seen, try to stab Gretchen Carlson in the back--then the only justification for ruthlessness is effectiveness. And on that score, in view of the ratings, TCG wishes to answer to KP that Chetry and her ratlike agent have been remarkable INEFFECTIVE.
So Chetry has little to look forward to in the TV biz, let alone The Cable Game. If she is not to be trusted as a colleague, then she will have a risky time of it at CNN, which is notorious as a snake pit--a pit made worse by ratings that are in the pits.
It'll take Lara Croft, not Kiran Chetry, to escape from that Nielsen black hole.
