More Watched Health Care Reform Special Than Late Night Comedy Shows
In case you needed proof of how worried people are about health care, consider this: More people watched Wednesday’s ABC News health care special with President Obama than watched either of the major network late-night comedy shows.
Here are the numbers:
ABC’s program continued into “Nightline” where it topped NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” in fast national data. The program averaged 4.25 million Total Viewers at 11:35pm, to Conan’s 3.66 million and Letterman’s 3.23 million.
I guess this is encouraging news for those who say policy can be made entertaining and relevant, though a major crisis undoubtedly helps. Either way, the intense public attention to this issue reminds us how enormous the stakes are for Obama right now. Eric Boehlert has more.
Update: I should have included the fact that that during its first hour, the special was last in the time slot, though it was ABC’s best 10 P.M. audience in six weeks, with 4.7 million viewers.
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Greg
Whats really interesting is, and I am sure you know this, but the right wing blogs was framing those numbers as an Epic Fail yesterday.
yeah, saw that SG. amazing…
I spent 6 hours in the emergency room yesterday with my nephew, a recent college grad visiting from NC. We did not lay out a penny, his parents’ Blue Cross covered it, and his treatment is going to cost $$$ (he has a DVT resulting from an injury a few months ago. Scary!). The first resident who treated him was saying that the medicine they chose between two equally effective ones would be based on insurance company approval. Trying to get an answer at night took a lot of his time. The doc went on to remark that if we get health care reform it will help a lot with this. I found it very encouraging to hear that. And also sick at heart to think of how this would have gone for anyone without insurance. Even my nephew. He’s 22. He can’t be eligible under his parents’ plan for much longer.
I didn’t watch either one. I watched the STL Cardinals. Sports is much more entertaining.
Not worried enough–you omitted the prime time numbers:
The ABC News special edition of Primetime “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” drew 4.7 million Total Viewers – last in the time slot but ABC’s best 10pm audience in six weeks. NBC’s “The Philanthropist” won the time period with 7.4M and CBS’ “CSI NY” was second with 7.3M.
What did O’Reilly draw in comparison?
O’Reilly had like 60 million.
Lets be realistic, O’Reilly has 3.498m total average viewers, as reported by Fox News and The Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/fox-news-claims-top-11-ca_n_192514.html
oh, nice post but really?/?