Giant screens, pie charts, and more analysis than a math class. Welcome to Super Tuesday. The primary election day Super Tuesday broke many past presumptions, knocking off normal programming. Due to the writer’s strike, watching a rerun of your favorite show was put on the back burner to watching a showdown between candidates gearing up for November election. Cable news programs CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC battle out for top election coverage, which went to CNN this Super Tuesday. CNN campaigned amongst viewers and have seen their ratings reciprocate. A jump of 40% in viewers has bumped FOX News from the number one seat and replaced them with CNN.
This push gave CNN the top three cable news shows, beating out the ranks of CNN in the late hour coverage. The coverage had approximately 3.8 million viewers tuning in, edging out FOX’s 3.7 million viewers and MSNDC’s 2.3 million viewers during their top shows. The mixture of analysis and breaking news coverage has given CNN a new personality and putting them back in the game for the top news network.
This election is proving to be one for the books. Called an election for change, the amount of viewers tuning in alone during primaries greatly outweighs this time four years ago according to a recent article in Broadcasting and Cable by Marisa Guthrie. All of the news stations are reporting outstanding increase in viewers, including a 295% increase in total viewers for CNN. Fox News total viewers increased 161% and MSNBC saw an unbelievable 458% increase in viewers.
The effort put forth by CNN will be continually monitored as November draws near. While positioned nicely after Super Tuesday, the amount of graphics and screens that Wolf Blitzer and the rest of the CNN team use will be put to the test. Americans want to be informed, but they also have to understand and be able to keep up with the technology being used. CNN could hurt themselves by overloading the technology creating a program for the political savvy and not necessarily the average American.
Comments (1)
Of course, the last two elections had the lowest voter turnouts in the whole of American history, so beating them isn't saying much...
Posted by Sam L | March 24, 2008 12:51 AM
Posted on March 24, 2008 00:51