So you caught me...I spent my Tuesday evening switching channels between AC360 and Dancing With The Stars. It struck me somewhere between Hillary's dancing around the truth and Obama's dancing around Hillary's softshoe that there isn't that much difference between a Presidential campaign and a celebrity dance competition. Well, maybe one is a lot more interesting, but everyone is just dancin' their little hearts out!
We've got lots to cover tonight, so let's get to it. Anderson anchored AC360 from the West Coast on Tuesday night. We know he has an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Thursday this week, so the switch to the LA studios was not unexpected.
Tuesday's panel discussion centered on Hillary's oops and her attempt to divert attention away from her little white lie and back onto Senator Obama's former pastor Dr. Wright. Doing the dissection of the day's events were Jamal Simmons, Lanny Davis and Time's Joe Klein.
I'm disappointed in HRC's exaggeration of her experience in Bosnia in 1996. But I'm in total agreement with her that Barack should have walked away from a church if he didn't agree with the message being preached to parishioners.

I'm going to go a little off message here, at least as far as blogging the McCain segment presented by Dana Bash. I was struck by McCain's comments that there would be no bailout by his administration for home owners who have over-borrowed and lenders who have over-lent. He said "I've always been committed to the principal that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers." Oh really, Senator McCain? Is that right? Then how do you explain your participation in the collapse of Lincoln Savings and Loan in the 1980s that resulted in a $3.4 billion bailout by the United States government? John McCain was censured by the Senate Ethics Committee for his part in this fiasco as part of 'The Keating Five'.
It struck me as so ironic to see Mrs. Reagan giving her endorsement to the man who dragged her husband's administration into a debacle that should never have happened.
There were a few fun moments in a rather serious (aren't they all) interview with Michael Ware. Turns out it was the Aussie's birthday and AC delivered his best wishes. Just in case you were wondering, our resident MW expert tells me it was Michael's 39th! Happy Birthday MW!
I've got another video I want to share with you that I found very, very amusing. It's a gotcha moment between John Roberts and Bill Richardson that happened on American Morning on Monday. It's one of those rare times that a politician is cornered and he tries to dance as fast as he can but he can't get out of that corner. I really enjoyed this interview and I think you will, too. Thanks to Cyn for the upload assistance.
A note to any of you Elton John fans. Elton is giving a concert in support of the Clinton campaign on April 9th in New York City. The Clinton campaign is giving tickets and a trip to 2 lucky campaign donors. If you're interested in learning more
follow the link and good luck.
And last but not least is the Rating Guru's look at Sunday night's CBS 60 Minutes ratings. I hope to see you back here tomorrow. ~ Phebe
60 MINUTES – A Good Performance …^
(Viewership is very low on holidays and there was cable competition)
Courtesy: 60 Minutes
I know, some will say “excuses, excuses” with a decent lead-in from an NCAA Basketball game overrun. But there are multiple reasons to take into consideration for a program’s performance.
*Basketball is not the skew of the 60 Minutes audience. A soccer feature is not going to hold that audience when it is the last story on the program. You might say the delay in the start of 60 MINUTES might help since more audience tunes in more at 8PM than at 7PM, but with a holiday, the hour probably didn’t make any difference.
*Easter has some of the lowest viewership levels of holidays.
*Cable had two specials of note that would draw higher than normal audiences – JOHN ADAMS on HBO which attracts the desired 60 MINUTES audience and the SOUND OF MUSIC on ABC Family – a perennial family audience holiday favorite.
*Viewership overall is not high in late March due to rerun programming on broadcast along with not having brought “eyeballs” back to television due to the long writer’s strike. Original, first run episodes will begin to air with regularity the first week of April for most networks. Again, unusual because of the strike, as April is usually a rerun month as well. People are “trained” to tune out during certain months of the year.
Courtesy: 60 Minutes
In keeping with the 60 MINUTES tradition of offering a mix of investigational, topical news and profiles of people in the public eye, Anderson Cooper presented an inside view to what brought British soccer star, David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy. The program delivered 10.26 million viewers Total Audience 2+ with a 6.5 Household Rating and an 11 Household Share. This is just slightly lower than the 60 MINUTES which aired up against the Oscar broadcast and was the last time the program carried an AC story. It was the #2 program for CBS for the week of March 17, 2008 and the #2 program in the time period – 8PM on Sunday night for broadcast television.
Courtesy: 60 Minutes
Since the soccer season starts next week, the timing of this piece is great promotion for Major League Soccer and a reminder to fans that Beckham is no longer injured. Some of you commented on why soccer isn’t more popular in the U.S. Having worked in major sports, I can tell you the single biggest factor in driving audiences to a sport is regularly scheduled broadcast or basic cable television airings. Soccer is mostly carried on digital channels making it financially out of reach for fans unless they can pay the cable or satellite monthly higher tier price. The World Cup or soccer events are sometimes carried on easily accessed channels, but they are scheduled haphazardly and that causes fans to miss out if they are not promoted and advertised extensively.
The second reason was correctly stated that once kids playing soccer become interested in baseball and football (American, that is), the participation in the sport is decimated. This is the other single biggest factor in the success of the sport – consistent participation for ages at least under 35. And girls, well, by the age of 12, soccer participation diminishes greatly as well for a variety of activities. We know by television viewing patterns, if there is no participation (vicarious or otherwise) in the sport and if it isn’t programmed consistently (think football, every Sunday in the fall) the sport becomes low interest. You saw in the piece, David Beckham conducting a “clinic” for young kids. Major League Soccer is trying to get them interested and committed young, but the challenge is to hold them as they grow into their teens. Simon Fuller, David Beckham’s manager and Anschultz Entertainment Group’s (Galaxy owner) President Tim Lieweke, who was featured in the AC piece, are betting the Galaxy can lead the charge. Cooper gave us some interesting “nuggets” of information with the financial deal – wow – a cut of concessions and merchandise. I would be interested to know what Major League Baseball and Football think of that for their players! Stay tuned.
RATINGS GURU
^Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics and Household information where noted; Fast Track Nationals only; final audience subject to change.
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