Commentary
Presidential Brand Awareness: How Well Does He Know TV Ratings?
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 3, 2017
We don’t know for sure. But we know he has a fixation on overall media brand awareness, reaching the highest levels of earned media in the U.S as a presidential candidate, and now as president.
Apparently, it isn’t just high in the U.S., but in other countries -- like Russia.
In January, according to Russian news agency Interfax, which runs a news-monitoring system, as well as financial information services, President Donald Trump got 202,000 mentions in print and online media.
This topped the 147,000 total for Russia's president Vladimir Putin, who was on top for five years. (Former U.S. President Barack Obama came in third with 61,200 mentions.) We don’t know about the quality of the mentions -- good, bad, or anything in between.
In this country, President Trump keeps close tabs on all TV media -- like digging into his former TV home -- “Celebrity Apprentice” and its new host Arnold Schwarzenegger during a National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.
advertisement
advertisement
He said: “The ratings went right down the tubes, it’s been a total disaster, and Mark [Burnett, executive producer of [‘Celebrity Apprentice’] will never ever bet against Trump again. And I want to just pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings, OK?”
Countered Schwarzenegger, during a Twitter video feed: “Why don’t we switch jobs. You take over TV -- because you are such an expert in ratings [emphasis added] -- and I take over your job. Then people can sleep comfortably again.”
For years, reality-show performer/producer Donald Trump was always a bit fuzzy about how well “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice” ranked ratings-wise. "The Apprentice" was a legitimate hit in its first season, but began to decline over the years.
Now there’s a different kind of rating picture: Continued high TV viewership on TV news networks and other programming. Just two weeks into his administration, Trump also knows something about how to get high TV ratings in public office.
But presidential approval poll ratings? That’s another matter. Like all TV executives know, nothing in TV lasts forever. Cancellation clouds always hang around -- sometimes amassing when you least expect it.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
“Cancellation clouds always hang around…” Cancellation of what? The presidency? the networks and newspapers blanketing him with “mentions?” Trump’s 202,000 January mentions could have been twice that if he'd so chosen. Approval ratings this early on don't hold nearly the importance for him as the degree to which people are talking about him. If they’re saying nice things, great; he’ll use it (likely embellished) to his advantage. If they’re not—or if they can be perceived as unflattering, which is a yuuuge part of Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder—he’ll have another platform on which to jump for a dose of his venom. Ratings, schmatings. They’re whatever Trump says they are. If coverage slows down—and it will not (is nobody out there paying attention?)—he’ll just buy networks or newspapers and fabricate the ratings/readership. Has anyone yet been thrown into jail for making them up?