2008 The Ratings
posted by on October 30 at 9:50 AM
The Obamamercial, about which you all had quite a bit to say, beat Ross Perot’s ratings for his similar 1996 infomercial and also beat the evening’s ratings for Pushing Daisies on ABC (the network may have been trying, in vain, to score a ratings coup by refusing to air Obama’s spot).
Via The Caucus:
More than 20 percent of American households watched Barack Obama’s 30-minute campaign commercial on Wednesday night, according to preliminary ratings.In the top 56 local TV markets, the household rating for Mr. Obama’s message was 21.7, Nielsen said. The rating indicates the percentage of homes that watched the program. While it will be impossible to judge how many undecided voters the infomercial reached, Mr. Obama’s message clearly reverberated across the country, drawing more viewers than most prime time programs.
The commercial was particularly high-rated in several battleground states. According to Nielsen, 29 percent of households in the Philadelphia media market, 28 percent of households in the West Palm Beach/Ft. Pierce, Fl. media market, and 27.2 percent of households in the Greensboro/High Point/Winston Salem, N.C. media market viewed the ad…
“If Barack Obama fails to win the election, perhaps the networks should hire him to entertain viewers on Wednesday nights,” The Hollywood Reporter suggests.
everyone I know watched it ... and none of them report to Nielsen.
While I thought it was a pretty good program - I'm much more excited for next weeks episode.
I thought it was sappy and overdone. But then, it is geared towards the undecideds and my vote is already cast for Obama.
Still, I think the real reason Obama bought that air time was for a potential defense of a GOP smear attack in the final weeks of the campaign. And since that did not happen (or happen anywhere near effectively) it turned into something as cheesey as a yeast infection commercial.
I enjoyed it - very effective for the target audience (swing state independent voters).
I expect the second, unstated purpose of the ad-buy is to dominate the last big news cycle going into the election. McCain is already attacking the ad, but that means Obama has effectively set the frame. The Media loves to talk about itself, so this will get lots of play.
and ... @5 for the insightful win.
McCain's on defense - which means he loses.
@2 - I can't wait either.
Let's hope it's not one of those horrible flashback episodes where we get to relive the last 8 years.
@6, can you try to keep the "for the win" posts down to 1 a day, or just go back to the WoW boards?
I watched Pushing Daisies instead.
I surprised about Philly. I thought those folks would be too busy burning cars.
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