Boston party not great TV time

The star-spangled Democratic National Convention has not proved to be must-see TV for mainstream America, despite all the manufactured optimism and shrill promises of the four-day event.

“This convention doesn’t seem to be leaving any footprints. That’s what the Democrats need to worry about. Did it leave any kind of impression?” asked Tim Graham of the conservative, Alexandria-based Media Research Center yesterday.

Four years ago, ABC, NBC and CBS had a combined audience of 17.6 million during the 2000 convention; that number shrank to 13.4 million this year, according to preliminary ratings numbers from Nielsen Media Research.

From 10 to 11 p.m. this week, NBC had an average 4.2 million viewers, ABC averaged 4.1 million and CBS had 3.9 million. During the Democratic convention four years ago, those figures stood at 5.9 million, 6 million and 5.2 million, respectively.

But critics have complained that the broadcast network’s decision to pare coverage was a self-fulfilling prophecy: Less coverage meant lower viewer interest.

Among them, the three networks offered a total of 12 hours of coverage this week, each devoting just an hour a night, from 10 to 11 p.m. In 1992, the networks allotted 20 hours of coverage, according to Democratic National Committee statistics.

Back in 1960, the coverage hovered around 120 hours, or from four to nine hours per network, per night.

“Kerry has been missing in action all week, which doesn’t reflect much confidence. It makes me wonder if he’s going to wear well in close coverage,” Mr. Graham continued. “It also hasn’t helped to have the networks themselves poor-mouthing the convention as some kind of infomercial. Who wants to watch that?”

Indeed, network anchors such as Dan Rather of CBS have referred to the convention as “Dullsville” this week.

“Political conventions are straddling the line between pointless and anachronistic, the ratings show that the viewers have recognized them as such. If viewers want to watch a vote with an unknown outcome, they can watch ‘Big Brother 5.’” said Matthew Felling of the D.C.-based Center for Media and Public Affairs.

“Dems leave audiences cold. The general public remained indifferent, even after two days of impassioned party rhetoric,” the show-business news magazine Variety noted Wednesday.

The cable news channels have flourished this week with gavel-to-gavel coverage and notable increases in audiences.

CNN won the “keynote” ratings race between Monday and Wednesday nights, according to Nielsen Media Research, with a three-day average of 2.8 million viewers between 10 and 11 p.m., compared to 1.6 million for Fox News and 1.4 million for MSNBC.

Fox News, however, won overall daytime coverage with an average of 952,000 viewers, compared with 709,000 for CNN and MSNBC 420,000.

During the Democratic convention four years ago, CNN had an average 1.7 million prime-time viewers for its coverage, MSNBC had 607,000 and Fox News, 400,000.

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