Gingrich’s TV Audience Scarce

Newt spoke, but few listened. At least, that is, relatively speaking, according to the ratings. House Speaker Newt Gingrich asked the networks for air time for a Friday speech about the first 100 days of the Republican-led Congress. But, of the broadcast networks, only CBS agreed to give him the time. Based just on ratings, it looks like ABC and NBC knew what they were doing.

From 8 to 8:30 Friday night (Gingrich spoke from 8 to 8:23) CBS averaged a 5.0 rating (percentage of the 51 million TV homes in the 32-market overnight survey) and a 9 share (percentage of the sets in use). At the same time, ABC’s “Family Matters” posted a 12.3 rating/22 share; the first half-hour of NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries” averaged a 9.2/17 and Fox’ “VR. 5” a 5.8/10.

On CNN, Gingrich’s speech and the Democratic response, generated a 1.5 rating (percentage of the 63 million homes that get the network), representing 955,000 households. That was lower than the network’s average performance in the time period during the first quarter of the year, a 1.6 rating (1,048,000 homes).

Gingrich’s ratings on CNN fell far short of those for “Larry King Live,” which followed at 9 p.m. Friday. King’s guest: Kato Kaelin. That show with the O.J. Simpson houseguest/witness generated a 2.9 rating, representing 1,851,000 homes. That’s up from King’s first-quarter average of a 1.8 rating (1,161,000 homes).