There are very few places where a new TV show can lose 60 percent of its audience in a month and survive. Fortunately for Mike Rowe, the former Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” star, CNN is such a place.
His new show, “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” is part of CNN boss Jeff Zucker’s effort to spice up prime time with original programs to attract new and even younger audiences.
It debuted with more than half a million viewers in the key 25-to-54 age demographic advertisers crave. CNN heralded that. It has since dropped to 140,000 live viewers in the age group.
Week 2, 339,000 in the demographic.
Week 3, 184,000.
Week 4, 145,000.
Week 6, 140,000.
Other networks would pull the plug with such a low viewership, even for a new show still building its audience. But CNN just added another season, showing faith in Rowe and Zucker’s master plan.
And the reason is simple, said an industry exec: Even with low ratings, Rowe is drawing more than twice the audience as the show he replaced on CNN, “Piers Morgan Tonight.”
What’s more, crows CNN, he has succeeded in attracting a younger base of viewers than his MSNBC and Fox competitors. Typically news prime-time shows attract older Americans, but the average age of his viewer is 50 and advertisers like that.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
