Aug 27, 2008 11:05 pm US/Central
Good Question: Does Anyone Care About Conventions?
(WCCO)
When it comes to TV ratings, the Democratic and Republican conventions might be considered candidates for cancellation. Compared to regular network programming, the conventions are far from huge attractions. So does this mean that real people don't care about conventions?
"Well they care, it's just what degree do they care," said Neal Justin, media columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
NBC won Monday night's convention coverage with 4.85 million viewers, ABC had 3.8 million and CBS had 3.52 million; combined they total a little more than 12 million viewers.
That compares to Monday night's top-rated program, NBC's "Deal or No Deal," which was seen by an estimated 11 million viewers. A repeat of CBS's "Two and a Half Men" got nearly 9 million viewers and NBC's "America's Toughest Jobs" got 7.5 million.
"I think it's probably an hour a day that people are interested. If you look at anything beyond that it's a lot of journalists sitting around talking to each other," Justin said.
"They go on for awhile. Four days is a long time to hear the same story," said one man in downtown Minneapolis.
Another woman added, "its more entertainment than it used to be, there's really no excitement or drama that you used to feel."
So why would media organizations spend the money to move their anchors and production crews to Denver and Minneapolis? Convention organizers say there are 15,000 journalists registered to cover each event.
"Two things: One, you never know what's going to happen," said Justin. "But I think a lot of it is tradition too… And some of it is just an obligation to keep up with the 'Joneses.'"
"These are expensive endeavors to cover. It's expensive to have a skybox. Some local stations, including WCCO-TV, said 'We can use this money and invest it in local stories,'" according to Justin.
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