Sarah Palin Comes to Rescue Oprah After Obama Endorsement Destroys Oprah's Ratings

[Mistermj]

Oprah to plug Palin book and maybe placate conservatives

Oprah Winfrey, on a campaign to climb back from last season's ratings slump, will attempt to kiss and make up with conservative viewers on Nov. 16 when she has Sarah Palin on her syndicated talk show.

You may have noticed that the appearance by the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate is happening smack dab in the middle of the November ratings derby.
It's also the day before Palin's new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life" is scheduled to hit bookstores.

Oprah's Winfrey's production company, Harpo Productions, claims it will be Palin's first interview about the book. We'll see about that.

More importantly, Harpo also claims it will be the first time Oprah Winfrey will have met and Palin will have met, and Harpo should know.

It's not just another show booking for Oprah Winfrey. She's going whole hog this season to try to recover from the ratings tumble she took last season when her audience slid to under 7 million viewers. And, during one awful week in July, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" suffered its smallest ratings since its debut way back in 1985.

Industry navel gazers speculated Oprah had turned off some of her conservative viewers -- or, more accurately, they had turned her off -- when she not only endorsed then presidential candidate Barack Obama but even campaigned for him. (Palin, of course, was the running mate of Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain.)

It was the first time Oprah had stripped off her apolitical veneer and publicly endorsed a political candidate. At the time, Oprah told CNN's Larry King she did it because "what [Obama] stands for" was "worth me going out on a limb for."

And her ratings took a tumble

 

[kingbill]

Ever since Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama, the media has tried to spin stories that Oprah’s ratings decreases for her daytime talk show are tied to that endorsement. Even though there is not any evidence that clearly supports such a view, the stories persist.

For a while, we were getting multiple requests a week to look at that data, and whenever we looked at it, we couldn’t come up with anything to actually support the case. At least unless we could somehow attribute decreases with Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune to Oprah’s endorsement of Obama too.
Over the weekend, the AP did another story on Winfrey’s ratings and based on that, The New York Times’ David Carr penned a post for Media Decoder titled “Oprah’s Politics May Have Viewers Voting With Their Feet“.

Even though the article starts out by pointing out some truths, that ratings are down pretty much for everyone, and that despite Oprah being down 7% last year versus the prior year, shows like Jerry Springer’s and Martha Stewart’s were down double digit percentages. But, it then abandons rational analysis of the numbers and jumps into the speculative fray about the role Oprah’s politics play.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/09/1...t-even-if-theres-no-supporting-evidence/27062

also
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/09/1...th-season-premiere-with-whitney-houston/27241

Oprah Winfrey still has plenty of Nielsen firepower.

Monday’s 24th season premiere of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” — which featured a heavily hyped interview with Whitney Houston — notched an 8.0 rating/12 share in Nielsen’s metered market overnight ratings. That’s the highest single-day rating for “Oprah” in nearly two years, and up a healthy 45 percent over last season’s premiere.

Press reps for Winfrey’s show note that “Oprah” scored well despite being delayed or pre-empted in nine major markets due to CBS’s neverending coverage of the U.S. Open.
Update: here’s Broadcasting & Cable’s coverage with different numbers cited than the above:

CBS’ The Oprah Winfrey Show, syndication’s top talk show, had its biggest premiere in three seasons, opening season 24 on Monday at a 4.8/13, up 55% from last year’s 3.1/8, the show’s lowest-rated premiere ever. The premiere featured an exclusive interview with pop diva Whitney Houston.

This year’s premiere also beat 2007, when Oprah opened at a 4.6/12. Like all syndicated shows, Oprah’s ratings have dropped steadily in recent years. In 2004, the show premiered at a 7.3/21; in 2005, at a 6.4/16 and in 2006, at a 5.5/14.
CBS’ Dr. Phil had intended to premiere with a live episode shot in New York City, but decided to tape it and hold it for Tuesday because Dr. Phil was preempted in many markets for CBS’ coverage of the Men’s U.S. Open Tennis Finals from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET. A repeat episode averaged a 2.8/7.

 

[Mistermj]

Nothing "speculative" about it...

Obama is an anchor around the necks of those that endorse him.

@)

 

[TomGshotput]

One guest for one hour will reverse an entire year of decline?

If Palin is that magical why does she choose to help Oprah's career more than her own?

 

[Mistermj]

One guest for one hour will reverse an entire year of decline?

If Palin is that magical why does she choose to help Oprah's career more than her own?

Sarah made $7 million last month...sounds like a pretty good career move to me.

Good for her...she completely face planted the liberal attack mob and turned it into gold.

 

[TomGshotput]

Guess I haven't been paying attention enough. It was pretty easy to see that she was the big winner last November. Write a few chapters, do a few talk shows and make millions. But to say that Oprah has been struggling because of her political endorsement and in 44 minutes Sarah Palin will reverse it all seems pretty delusional. Oprah's entire career is based on yo-yoing and I would guess her paycheck last month wasn't too bad either

 

[xpanda]

This is only anecdotal, of course, but I was one of the people who turned Oprah off after she endorsed Obama. Mind you, I only watched maybe once every couple of weeks, but now I won't watch her at all.

Similarly I turned off Dr Phil when he got all 'war! woohoo!' on us during the Iraq war protests.

 

[Mistermj]

Guess I haven't been paying attention enough. It was pretty easy to see that she was the big winner last November. Write a few chapters, do a few talk shows and make millions. But to say that Oprah has been struggling because of her political endorsement and in 44 minutes Sarah Palin will reverse it all seems pretty delusional. Oprah's entire career is based on yo-yoing and I would guess her paycheck last month wasn't too bad either

You have to cut Oprah some slack...

She now realizes she bought 1st class tickets on the Titanic with the Obama endorsement.

 

[kingbill]

Guess I haven't been paying attention enough. It was pretty easy to see that she was the big winner last November. Write a few chapters, do a few talk shows and make millions. But to say that Oprah has been struggling because of her political endorsement and in 44 minutes Sarah Palin will reverse it all seems pretty delusional. Oprah's entire career is based on yo-yoing and I would guess her paycheck last month wasn't too bad either

23 Million a month...not bad...some of us don't even make that in a year.

 

[ScottL]

Yeah, bring back the ABC After School Special =)

Seriously doubt Oprah's rating drop has anything to do with her political views. Probably more to do with viewer burnout. Can't stay on top forever. Look at Leno's viewership falling like a stone at 10pm.

 

[ScottL]

23 Million a month...not bad...some of us don't even make that in a year.

Yeah, I only made that in 1998.

 

[D2bets]

Yeah, I'm sure Oprah needs rescuing. Hilarious. Obviously this is a much bigger coup for Palin than it is for Oprah. When Oprah pimps books, they sell. Palin's book will sell.

 

[TomGshotput]

You have to cut Oprah some slack...

She now realizes she bought 1st class tickets on the Titanic with the Obama endorsement.

First you have to believe her audience does not seperate politics from entertainment. Then you have to believe it is so strongly anti-Obama to make enough of a difference. Then you have to believe even after turning away from the show they still pay attention to the guest list and the few minutes Palin is being interviewed is enough to make up for it

I have to wonder if any one of those things are accurate, let alone all of them

 

[gtc08]

oprah needs rescuing? funny. shes worth over a bill and one of the most powerful women in the country.

if anyone needs rescuing, its palin. her disapproval ratings continue to skyrocket. why else is she going on a more diverse show with a more diverse demo then a fox. she knows if she just sticks with the far right she aint going anywhere.

 

[gtc08]

oprah is getting alot of flack as well for putting palin on her show. i think oprah will give palin a fair interview. i will watch. she's had guys like oreilly on before, so its not like she's never had a conservative

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

i think oprah will give palin a fair interview


OMG!!!!!!! Ive read 4 threads here in the last 5 mins and all 5 have amazed me more than the 1 before....

Ophrah is going to gather a series of sounbites that will make Palin the Rush Limbaugh of the week she is on. While every network talks about the Palin interview the POS will be cutting throats left and right, sending billions of dollars all over this country to buy a vote on Healthcare that nobody wants.....But you'll be watching Oprah...im shocked..

 

[barman]

You have to cut Oprah some slack...

She now realizes she bought 1st class tickets on the Titanic with the Obama endorsement.

Sure

No doubt if she could do it all again, Oprah would get right behind McCain/Palin

:drink:

 

[Mistermj]

Sure

No doubt if she could do it all again, Oprah would get right behind McCain/Palin

:drink:

It's just fun to watch how fast the pendulum swings.

Downtrodden liberal icons need an infusion of hot young Republican talent to pay the bills.

:toast:

 

[kingbill]

Palin is going to make an appearance and sell a shite load of books. She'll write another, maybe some fiction, Oprah will slap an Oprah Bookclub sticker on it and they both make 10's of Millions from each other.

Palin isn't going to run for President, Oprah and Palin will keep the relationship going with regular appearances and then Oprah will set Palin up with her own show like she did with Phil McGraw and both make another buttload of money.

 

[Mistermj]

Palin is going to make an appearance and sell a shite load of books. She'll write another, maybe some fiction, Oprah will slap an Oprah Bookclub sticker on it and they both make 10's of Millions from each other.

Palin isn't going to run for President, Oprah and Palin will keep the relationship going with regular appearances and then Oprah will set Palin up with her own show like she did with Phil McGraw and both make another buttload of money.

I hope she doesn't run for Prez either...

It's much more fun to watch her make millions and take down Obamacare in just one week using Facebook.

Poor Dems...they just don't get the new social media and technology thingy like the new crop of hot shot Publicans do .