Right, comparisons to past Hearings are not valid, for same reason not really helpful to compare Oscar ratings this year to 30 years ago. I think it helps to compare to most recent big audience political event, and most popular regular TV program.
I stayed home from school to watch the Wategate hearings, even before Alex Butterrfield (? That’s from memory, I think it was his name) revealed the tapes. I was on my Honeymoon when Oliver North was testifying in Iran-Contra, and am happy to report that I was otherwise engaged. I would be interested in seeing Ratings for those Hearings compared to the State of The Union speech that year, and the most popular regular show. On Sat, 11 Jun 2022 at 3:31 PM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > I agree with that. I just don’t want to set up a comparison to earlier > televised Congressional hearings because of the fracturing of the audience > and the fact that people know they can quickly get recaps instead of > sitting through the hearings. > > The first televised hearings in the fifties, the Kefauver organized crime > hearings and the Army McCarthy hearings, were apparently blockbusters. The > Watergate hearings, as I recall, didn’t become compelling until it came out > that Nixon was recording Oval Office conversations. I can’t comment about > Iran Contra because I wasn’t in the US at the time. > > On Sat, Jun 11, 2022 at 5:29 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Agreed. The Hearings are not a TV show and are not primarily evaluated in >> terms of ratings. >> >> But the ratings, albeit imperfectly, are an indication of public >> interest. My take is that, contrary to the claims of Trump collaborators >> that the American people no longer care about the 1/6 Attack, the ratings, >> at least on the first night, indicate a high level of interest; Americans >> were at least as interested in learning more about the Attacks as they are >> in watching prime time football. >> >> I feel like the Hearing over performed reasonable expectations in the >> ratings, and in substance. >> >> On Sat, 11 Jun 2022 at 1:16 PM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Summer TV numbers have always been relatively low and more and more >>> people don’t think of the networks when they choose what to watch in the >>> evening (Eastern time zone). >>> >>> For me the purpose of the hearings is to get all of this information and >>> evidence into the public record in the most accessible way and to make the >>> DOJ more aggressive in prosecuting those responsible. Neither of those >>> requires big ratings. >>> >>> On Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 5:29 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> I wish I had thought to ask this in advance, but I am interested in if >>>> folks here think this is a high, low or expected number of viewers for last >>>> night. For context, 19 M is less than the State of the Union (38M) and >>>> about the same as Sunday Night Football, which is the highest rated regular >>>> TV program. >>>> >>>> I got home at 6:25 from work, and watched the recording I had kind of >>>> randomly made from NBC News. The NYT reports the following breakdown: >>>> >>>> ABC: 4.8 M >>>> NBC: 3M+ >>>> CBS: 3M+ >>>> MSNBC: 4.2M (4X their normal audience) >>>> CNN: 2.6M >>>> >>>> Fox “News” got its usual 3M viewers, so I guess that really does mean >>>> that almost no regular FN viewer watched the Hearing. >>>> >>>> I watched the events of 1/6/21 live in horror and often literally in >>>> tears. I dug in pretty deeply over the weeks that followed on any available >>>> information, and I feel like about 90% of what the Committee is reporting >>>> was known before the end of January last year. Still, I have been impressed >>>> with the work of the Committee, and thought they did an effective job last >>>> night, consistent with finding that most people who tuned in at the start >>>> stayed with the whole two hours. >>>> >>>> I can also report the unsurprising news that Chuck Todd continues to be >>>> an incompetent twit. >>>> >>>> >>>> https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/business/media/jan-6-hearing-ratings.html?referringSource=articleShare >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Sent from Gmail Mobile >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKALpiLXaYuiWxbG4n%2BOV4b_bXfH_Z7TH0kWwK_2Umj%2BA%40mail.gmail.com >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKALpiLXaYuiWxbG4n%2BOV4b_bXfH_Z7TH0kWwK_2Umj%2BA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> >> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiFcgqgqehemvafPJWAsuyhndB-h9RHi6%2B8cdV4BOQ6O9g%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiFcgqgqehemvafPJWAsuyhndB-h9RHi6%2B8cdV4BOQ6O9g%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> Sent from Gmail Mobile >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> > To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKwFH%2BKpkL5UaUVR0xH7MX-hMyhx%3Dv2OPgZc9yRM61bkw%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKwFH%2BKpkL5UaUVR0xH7MX-hMyhx%3Dv2OPgZc9yRM61bkw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiEez81w4DxoORDVBbwYL_vPgDPxd5LuO3KS7naH5zdbaw%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiEez81w4DxoORDVBbwYL_vPgDPxd5LuO3KS7naH5zdbaw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. 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