Olbermann's NBC Ratings

[RamboLiberal]

We've received the Nielsen fast-national ratings (not the actual national ratings) and have a sense of how last night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann did in its premiere on NBC. The upshot: in total viewers it beat "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" on Fox. But finished behind "60 Minutes" and "America's Funniest Videos." 4,146,000 total viewers watched.

Countdown finished fourth in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos.

In a post last night , I asked how Olbermann's NBC show played in the plains. Aaron Barnhart of that plain-worthy state, Missouri wrote about it in his blog TVBarn.com.

More: An emailer writes, "4M viewers...is one hell of a sampling...I wouldn't kiss that number off." For context: Olbermann averaged 721,000 viewers each night in July. Almost 6 times as many watched last night.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

In a phoner with reporters last week, Keith Olbermann promised that his special network version of "Countdown," which aired last night, would not be any different that any "Countdown" he does for MSNBC. But that wasn't true. My guess is that someone at NBC convinced Olbermann that for his first appearance as a newsman on the network it would be a good idea to take his hard-edged, hard-headed approach to "Countdown" and, well, soften it up a bit.

KO is a smart guy, but that was not a smart move.

I understand that audiences might be unfamiliar with Olbermann's program, and could find the full-spectrum, serious-to-silly coverage that is "Countdown's" specialty a tad disconcerting. But I felt it was unwise and, ultimately, condescending to bring on both Mo Rocca and the guy who hosts "The Soup" for separate segments. This on a night when KO was already altering his program to include a cold open (explaining to network viewers expecting to see Chris Hansen shaking down Internet sex fiends what they were about to see instead) and a football segment at the end, leading into NBC's "Football Night in America," on which Olbermann now also toils.

Rocca seemed a particularly inappropriate choice for mid-show, a time when "Countdown" is usually bearing down on some vital but overlooked story of national import. Referring to recently posted photographs of Russian president Vladimir Putin out in the wild, shirtless, Rocca joked that there was another picture of Putin in "assless chaps." Much as he did with "Smoking Gun TV" (remember that car wreck?), Rocca brought "Countdown" way down. Combine that with an extended "Oddball" segment of wacky videos, an E! promo AND a segment on football ... well, let's just say last night's "Countdown" was more like broth than soup.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2007/08/ko-on-nbc-lets-.html

[aquart]

1. How did it compare with the show they normally have there?

[RamboLiberal]

10. Dateline from 2 weeks ago - it wasn't on last week

Last week’s numbers (fast nationals - Dateline):
Households - 3.9/7
Viewers - 5.67M
Adults 18-49 - 1.5/6

http://entertainmentnow.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/broadcast-tv-ratings-for-sunday-august-19-2007/

"Countdown with Keith Olbermann," scoring a 2.7/5.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/ratings/zap-ratings082607,0,3367566.story?coll=zap-tv-ratings-headlines

[coco77]

2. I agree about Rocca...

[Lex]

3. Yeah, me too.

I *want* him to be funny. He just isn't. At least not in that format.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. He makes me cringe at times. eom

[redqueen]

4. Hmmm...

I thought I heard that broadcast advertised as a 'best of oddball' thing... guess I wasn't paying enough attention.

[Warpy]

It was too sports heavy for me

so I tuned out pretty quickly. Yes, I realize he wasn't trying to alienate all the football viewers. However, he might have alienated everybody else.

Just sayin'.

[monmouth]

5. Totally agree with this, I was not disappointed, just....yawned I think.

[CatWoman]

6. You/we must take into consideration

the fact that several NBC affiliates did not air Olbermann, and chose to air the local news instead.

There was a post here in GD about that last night.

[kevinmc]

7. It wasn't on in my area... LA ... or Somehow I missed it. n/t

[la la]

14. Los Angeles?

last night- 10 pm - channel 7.

I actually thought it was just like his 'regular' show- although heavier on the sports. Which one of those guys tried to comment on one of KO's previous comments and KO kind of ignored it?

Maybe I was watching and .........not watching!

It was on here in the LA area though.

[kevinmc]

16. channel 7 is an ABC station in Los Angles ......

The football game was on channel 4 NBC ... no wonder I missed it.

[Beaverhausen]

17. Channel 4- NBC - showed Countdown at 10 PM - here in Los Angeles

[high density]

8. Too much pandering to the pre-football crowd, I guess

I assume that's why the news stopped only 20 minutes into the program. "Oddball" and "Worst Person in the World" are quite funny, but Mo Rocca and that guy from "The Soup" are not. In fact if they just played Tweety's "hah" over and over, I'd be more amused than I am by either of those guys. Why is Rocca still on TV? He was marginally funny on "The Daily Show" (thanks to their writing staff, I guess) but has floundered ever since.

[ThomWV]

9. Consider how many Stations did not carry it and then reconsider the numbers

Direct TV's programming for western Pensylvania is provided via a Pittsburgh channel - and although the program menu showed "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" as what was being shown in fact there was some bullshit football programming on instead. In short, a lot of people did not have the opportunity to watch it and that must be factored into the numbers. Obviously there would have been tens of thousands more.

[RamboLiberal]

11. Pittsburgh I expected Countdown to be preempted

The local stations have a tradition of airing their own sports shows prior to any national telecast of the Steelers in Prime Time.

[whoneedstickets]

12. Olberman is too smart by half for the American Public...

..I doubt that a significant portion of the population would every be able to keep up with his regular show. He''s easily one of the cleverest guys on TV but the rest are on Comedy Central or PBS (Colbert, Stewart, Charlie Rose -though I sometimes wonder about Rose).

[upi402]

19. Rose must be tired - he doesn't interrupt like he used to. n/t

[johnfunk]

13. Alert Larry Craig! "Rocca joked that there was another picture of Putin in 'assless chaps.'"

FABULOUS!

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. Erm. 'athletes' chaps LOL

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

18. I missed the show, but Mo Rocca? That guy is all annoying attitude and no funny.

[Beaverhausen]

20. I find Michael Musto far more annoying

I wish Keith would stop having him on the show but he seems to like him. Bleech!

[Berry Cool]

22. I didn't think he watered it down, although I could have done without Rocca.

I think some people are making assumptions. The blogger is, anyway.