Cable Content Connection

CNBC ratings appear to be benefiting from the recent economic crisis. CNBC has seen its rating increase significantly in the month of October. CNBC set a new weekly total viewer number last week and October is on track to be CNBC's best rated month ever.

 

 

You have to wonder what type of impact the positive news of the last 30 hours will have on CNBC's rating for the rest of the month.

The USA Network launched the new Debra Messing series last week called "The Starter Wife". The Starter Wife was originally a six hour mini series that premiered last year. My wife and I really enjoyed the six hour event and had high hopes for the series.

 

After watching the first episode over the weekend I'm certain of one thing. I will never watch another episode of this show again. The show was slow and boring and had nothing to offer the viewer. What a contrast to the original six hour work that moved quickly and that gave us a feel good story. I'm a huge fan of the people at USA Network and watch almost every original series they produce but "The Starter Wife" is a non starter. Please cut your losses and give us more "In Plain Sight" or Burn Notice.

You have to give MTV a lot of credit. They spun off the hit series "The Hills" from their popular show Laguna Beach and now they are going back to the well and spinning off a new series from "The Hills". Whitney Port one of the key characters from "The Hills" will get her own show "The City" to debut in early 2009.

 

Whitney a familiar and popular figure to the MTV audience will be moving from Los Angeles to New York City and MTV cameras will be along for the ride. The show will be centered on Whitney and her new job in the fashion industry in New York.

 

I'm impressed with the way MTV has been able to identify new vehicles that leverage the personalities they discover. They are able to take personalities that have resonated with their audiences and package them in vehicles that provide the best opportunity for success. There are no guarantees that Whitney's new show will be a success but you have to trust MTV's track record.

When I committed to doing this blog it was with the understanding that I would not allow my day job to get in the way of updating my blog. Well I failed. My day job and family commitments have kept me from updating this blog daily and I'm committed to changing this in the future and that is the type of change you can believe in. 

 

Starting today I'm back and I have a lot of stuff to cover. So with that said I'm going to go back to covering the world of Cable content. 

Monday Night Football's Dallas Cowboys versus Philadelphia Eagles game on ESPN became the most viewed cable television show in history. The game drew close to 13 million viewers.

ESPN's rating obviously benefitted from the high scoring nature of the game and the fact the result was in question until the waning seconds. The Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles are two of the NFL's storied franchise.

The Monday Night Football gamble seems to be paying off in the ratings race for ESPN. Monday Night Football had long been a primetime network staple before moving over to ESPN in 2007.

According to a report on EW.com MTV's Total Request Live (TRL)  will be closing up shop in November.

TRL had a very successful ten year run on MTV.  TRL's ratings peeked in the late 90's but the show was still a premium destination for many music groups. I wonder if former host Carson Daly will return for the finale.