Lackluster Ratings for CNN’s ‘Parker Spitzer’

NY Times ^ | 10/05/2010 | Bill Carter

[iowamark]

The new CNN entry “Parker Spitzer” may not be the answer to that network’s chronic ratings problems in prime time – at least from the evidence of its first night on the air.

The political discussion program, featuring the hosts Kathleen Parker, the conservative columnist, and Eliot Spitzer, the one-time governor of New York, fizzled badly in its initial outing Monday, attracting only 454,000 total viewers.

That not only left CNN far behind its main rivals — Bill O’Reilly on Fox had 3.1 million on Fox News and Keith Olbermann had 1.1 million on MSNBC – but it also trailed Nancy Grace on the HLN channel, who had 468,000 viewers.

Even worse for the new CNN program, it lost viewers from the show on just ahead of it, “John King USA,” which had 471,000 viewers. Perhaps more troubling for CNN, “Parker Spitzer” was down sharply from the show it replaced, “Rick’s List,” hosted by Rick Sanchez, who was recently ousted from CNN. And it even fell short of the show that had long occupied the 8 p.m. slot on CNN, with Campbell Brown.

Ms. Brown dropped out of the competition in May when she conceded she was not competitive with Fox and MSNBC. But she had been averaging over 500,000 viewers.

“Rick’s List” had been drawing about 491,000 viewers before CNN dumped Mr. Sanchez...

“Parker Spitzer” lost about 8 percent of Mr. Sanchez’s total audience from September, but fared even worse among the viewers that the news channels sell to advertisers, those between the ages of 25 and 54. Mr. Sanchez had averaged 156,000 viewers in that group in September. On Monday night, “Parker Spitzer” pulled in only 118,000, a drop of 24 percent...

[iowamark]

Client number 9 can't buy a friend.

[iowamark]

Total Viewers (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 1.444 | MSNBC: 492 | CNN: 397 | HLN: 247

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
Fox News	Beck:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:
	2.259	2.049	2.026	3.112	2.097	1.791	1.518	983
MSNBC	Matthews:	EdShow:	Matthews:	Olbermann:	Maddow:	O’Donnell:	Olbermann:	Maddow:
	625	845	773	1.115	854	887	542	385
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	ParkerSpitzer:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:	King:
	432	463	471	454	543	512	355	355
HLN	Showbiz:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Behar:	Grace:	Showbiz:	Behar:
	136	219	338	458	285	255	293	285

[ColdOne]

Client number 9 can't buy a friend. Isn't that how he got in trouble???

[freekitty]

Who? :)

[GeronL]

Now I want to see the numbers from all cable channels.

[Spok]

Philandering ruined the careers of Bob Packwood and Gary Hart; now it starts the scumbags’ career. And as far as I’m concerned, the last bit of respect I had for Parker is gone as well. I wish I watched CNN so I could quit.

[GnuHere]

“Parker Spitzer” sounds like it should be the name of a detective in a murder novel. (Or should I have said, a private dick?)

[alecqss]

Interestingly, Parker is called “conservative” by the New York Times...
Everything is relative, I guess. They must be defining rabid as “liberal”.

[Right Cal Gal]

Loving those abysmal numbers for Joy Behar’s show. That’s about the same as the mid-size California town where I live.

[GeronL]

lol

[GeronL]

lol

[Steely Tom]

What a disgusting, amoral show concept. Par for the course at CNN, though. Least Common Denominator TV. Very similar to their soulmates at the Least Common Denominator Political Party.

[varina davis]

Awful insult to viewers to give Spitzer his own show.

[ken5050]

If Spitzer DID Parker live on CNN, it wouldn’t get any ratings..

[comebacknewt]

Parker disgusts me even more than Spitzer, and that is saying a lot.

[FelixFelicis]

I was just thinking that if I had to come up with the worst possible combo for a cable news show, this might just be it. And then I remembered The View is still on.

[doosee]

Cant wait for their special on family values... maybe John Edwards could be the guest of honor. Dem perverts and whoremongers in primetime.... what a network

[lowbridge]

What? Nobody wants to see a Democrat on CNN? But its such a novelty!

[FelixFelicis]

Oops, I guess The View isn’t cable. Or news. But you get the idea.

[bert]

No, he got in trouble for the destruction of AIG. The outing was pay back by a very rich and severely pissed off Hank Greenburg, the injured rich man

He taught us a lesson. Don’t get mad, destroy your enemy