It’s increasingly difficult not to conclude that journalists, particularly the political obsessives, are quantitatively feeble-minded.
Take the recent forensic food fight on Fox News, charitably described by some as a debate, between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California’s Gavin Newsom. Please. The usual political outlets parsed this non-event to the third decimal place, viewing it from all angles, testing it with focus groups, consulting their mood rings. All this madcap measurement of the effect on the cosmos and the American electorate of an event Nielsen Media Research found that only 4.7 million viewers watched. Also, according to Nielsen, only 742,000 of the 25-to-54 demographic that advertisers drool over were on hand. So don’t expect high-fiving in the nation’s ad agencies, though I don’t doubt the pillow guy, the gold bugs, and the Camp Lejeune ambulance chasers will hang in there. Not to mention those endless Medicare Hotline ads, some of which feature Martha, the most annoying character on television.
To put this in perspective, 4.7 million viewers out of 335 million Americans means about 98.5 percent of Americans did not tune in. (This included me.) Hardly blanket coverage. To compare, the average episodes of Antiques Roadshow attract 8 million. I’m sure that yet another rerun of Miss Congeniality would fetch more than 4.7 Americanos. Though, to be fair here, Sandra Bullock is much more charming than either DeSantis or Newsom.
This is an unimpressive turnout for this much-ballyhooed match between two political heavyweights, even on a cable-only outlet. But you’d never guess it by the febrile coverage of and the heated headlines on the endless stories about this non-event. Here are just a few: The Hill invites readers with: “Nearly 5 million watched DeSantis, Newsom debate on Fox News.” Politico shouts: “Ron DeSantis vs. Gavin Newsom showdown on Fox drew nearly 5M viewers,” as though this were an accomplishment. Even the New York Post had a similar headline and, in its lead, said the show “drew big ratings for Fox News.”
Maybe these are big ratings in the cable world. Reruns bumped the numbers up a bit. But on the larger political stage, this is still nothing to write home about. If DeSantis were counting on this event to help him head off Hurricane Donald before the caucuses and primaries, he must be sorely disappointed. And if Newsom hoped this would improve his chances of replacing President Magoo on the 2024 ballot, he too will have to regroup.
Nearly 5 million viewers may be a big score for Sean Hannity. After all, his June and July town halls with Donald Trump drew only 2.8 and 2.9 million, respectively. Nielsen could register 2.9 million “viewers” if it only counted people who fell asleep in front of the television while watching a previous program. This much-hyped battle-of-the-governors may have been catnip to political junkies and given political journalists lots of easy stories to write, but, in the end, it amounted to not much. And check the ratings for the Republican debates, which are not much better. (I was MIA for these as well.) The next one won’t set the airwaves on fire.
None of this is to suggest that politics is not important. Thanks to our ever-metastasizing administrative state, spurred on by left-wing crazies at the top whose goal is to micro-manage every moment of our lives, politics is more important than it’s ever been in my long life. But most Americanos know where they fit on the spectrum and which politicians they fancy, which they loathe. This being the case, the appetite for watching politicians lob predictable talking points and insults at each other is severely limited. After a hard day’s work, Joe and Jane Voter would rather be entertained before turning in rather than suffer politics-induced blood pressure spikes. Tendentious political spats more often produce acid reflux than endorphins. I don’t wonder that fewer than 3 million wished to watch the Trump town halls. Tens of millions have voted for him and doubtless will again. But they don’t want to listen to him. I feel their pain.
The anemic viewership numbers for televised political “debates,” regardless of the lineup, may also reflect the unconscionable length of American campaigns that are wearing on both candidates and voters. We should probably rethink these multi-year slogs, but we won’t. In the U.K., an election is called and, six weeks later, the votes are being counted. Much more humane.
Like most who’ve been paying attention to events, I know what’s going on in both Florida and California. As a result, I awarded DeSantis an early-round TKO before the broadcast and saved myself the pain of watching it. Clearly I was not alone.