• by January 6, 2004

WHAT THE OTHER FOUR PERCENT WATCH - You might never guess it based on the lowbrow, downscale nature of the characters in some of its trademark programming, but the viewers of Fox's prime-time lineup turn out to be the most upscale of any broadcast network. Given the overall demographic profile of the average TV viewer, that might not seem like a whole lot, but Fox at least, appears to be keeping up with the Jones'. It is the only network whose audience composition matches the U.S. population in terms of affluent households. In terms of Nielsen demographic breaks, that now means people living in households earning $100,000 or more a year. That's a significant pay raise from the $75,000-plus break what previously was the upper income demo reported by Nielsen, according to a report being circulated by the audience analysis group at Interpublic's Magna Global USA unit. Although trend data isn't available for the new $100K break, Magna's analysis of the Nielsen data shows that 4 percent of Fox's prime-time audience is comprised of those affluent households. That's the same composition as the U.S. population average. And while that might not seem so upscale, it's considerably better than the economic profile of the average broadcast network viewer. According to Magna, only 3 percent of the viewers of ABC's, NBC's and The WB's prime-time fare fall into the $100K income bracket, while only 2 percent of the audience of Viacom's CBS and UPN networks do.

FROM HUNGER STRIKE - It's the kind of quip you'd have expected to hear from conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh, but it was liberal New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who had to issue a back-peddling apology after ridiculing Mahatma Gandhi and, in the process, offended many in the Indian-American community. Speaking at a fund-raiser for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer, Clinton introduced a famous quote of Gandhi's by referring to him as someone who "ran a gas station down in St. Louis." Later, after being confronted by news reporters, Clinton acknowledged the joke was a "lame attempt at humor" and asserted that she was a great admirer of the legendary Indian independence leader. As for the Gandhi quote used by Clinton -- "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - it might have been more accurate if she had simply paraphrased it as, "First they don't laugh at you. Then they don't ignore you. Then you lose."

FOOD FOR THOUGHT - Who said TV people had to be ruthless? Many of them are really nice, as evidenced by the CABLEready's NATPE Food Project, which began its 11th year this month with the donation of leftover food from show booths and parties to the Community Food Bank of Clark County. More than 15,000 pounds of quality food have been donated to local charities.