Friday, December 08, 2006

Well, shut my mouth

A few months ago, and several times since, I have expressed the view that “The View” is in a death spiral, due to the blow-up over Star Jones, and the replacing of Meredith Vieira with angry loose cannon Rosie O’Donnell. But ratings don’t lie, and O’Donnell has delivered a ratings boost. From Variety:

Three months in, it's still very apparent that firing Star Jones and replacing her with Rosie O'Donnell was the right ratings move for ABC's "The View."

Daytime strip notched its best-ever November sweeps ratings last month, surging 27% over its year-ago Nielsen numbers. Sweeps period was the first for the show since O'Donnell joined in September.

Overall, "The View" averaged a 1.7 rating in the key demo of women 18-49, making it the No. 4 show in all of daytime.

"The View" also scored record ratings in the total viewer category, attracting an average aud of 3.4 million viewers -- up 15% vs. the same frame in 2005.


Just the other night on Larry King, O’Donnell fan (and Star Jones detractor) Kathy Griffin expressed her awe at the power of the septuagenarian Barbara Walters to make and break careers. Perhaps she is right. I don’t actually watch "The View" anymore. I know that if anything really crazy happens, it will be in Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't watch the show but my mom who does says that Rosie is most times quite diplomatic and will make every attempt to referee the other ladies in the middle of heated debates. Maybe her new demeanor is due to her wearing more makeup and curling her hair. Rosie. Who would have guessed.

Anonymous said...

Joan -- I never ever watched The View with the oh so taupe-ish boring Meredith and the trainwreck/freeloading/beard Star Jones. With Rosie on it -- love it. She makes all of them funnier and she is a very fresh voice. for the most part the political debate is quite interesting. You should try it!!!

Anonymous said...

This is because you were thinking way too highbrow, Joan. Rosie connects with a more "downmarket" demographic, the kind of folks who anxiously await the next exclusive country music CD release at Wal-Mart. She does the working class girl from Long Island schtick quite well, and they eat it up.