Seventy million people watched the vice presidential debate last Thursday. The effect on the election? "Zero," said John Harwood of
The New York Times on MSNBC on Friday.
A
subdued Sen. Joe Biden and a winking, looking straight-into-the-camera Gov. Sarah Palin were
apparently the big
draw for
those millions. Critics say Palin succeeded because she talked in complete sentences. "The Daily Show" comedy writers,
in coming up with a faux headline in Entertainment Weekly, prophesized that she succeeded because "she didn't drool."
Polls? Upscale women might have been turned off by all that Palin
winking. Middle-class women might have been a little warmer towards all of this. Biden? One media agency executive, who saw the debate in HD, was repulsed by Biden's badly applied makeup --
though, when turning away from the screen, said Biden seem to make sense, even in his somewhat dour way.
The bigger question is, what does this mean ratings-wise for the next Presidential
debate, scheduled for tomorrow? The last time a Presidential debate hit the 69.9 million mark was in 1992, when Bill Clinton faced off against George Bush and Ross Perot. The first Obama/McCain
debate didn't even get to 30 million viewers.
The vice presidential debate seems to be a good lead-in for the next presidential debate - and then some, possibly moving more voters than
ever to head to the polls. All this should show the power of television.
But in reality, it doesn't work that way in television. The power of high ratings comes when you least expect it.
Viewers are a fickle lot. Last season, they more or less shrugged their shoulders over the end of the season's entertainment programming - but then showed up with tremendous intent in August for
NBC's Beijing Summer Olympics.
Maybe there's a 30,000-foot view. Maybe the vice presidential debate will be an igniter for the rest of the TV season. Viewers like drama -- preferably
real-life stuff. That doesn't mean much for supposed-real-life shows with low expectations: "Opportunity Knocks," "Hole in the Wall," and "The New BFF," for example.
But I'm betting
on better viewing results for any crime-related drama or real, real-life programming, like that on CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News
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