Sarah Palin's celebrity and a week of free publicity over her planned use of canned interviews and her warlike political rhetoric didn't deliver enough viewers for her Fox News special to match the ratings of the Greta van Susteren show in the same timeslot. "Real American Stories" got 2.073 million viewers, 472,ooo of them in the coveted 25-54 age group. It was enough to beat the cable competition, but still 10% fewer than van Susteren got the week before and almost a quarter million down from her lead in, Sean Hannity.
Reviews were not enthusiastic, or, as Greta van Susteren would have it, "nasty." The proper role of a journalist in this situation, van Susteren suggests, is to celebrate the fact that Palin got a show on Fox News.
Have you seen the TV critics' reviews of Governor Sarah Palin's special? Nasty is a description I would assign to them. What is so bizarre is that not one single person who took a swipe at her is remotely as successful she is. You don't have to agree with everything Palin says (I do not) but how can you deny her success? If you look at the ratings for her special, she easily beat the competition in the time slot! What is with the critics? Even with no TV experience, she crushed the competition. The critics are saying, among other things, she was boring. If she were boring with her ratings for her special -- what are the other networks who were crushed in that time slot saying today about their programming with their experienced anchors? It tells you a lot about the critics when they whack the winner and give a pass to those who are failing. It is rewarding the loser. Why can't they enjoy the woman's success?
John Coale, van Susteren's husband, acknowledged to the Washington Post that he served as an unofficial advisor to the Palin family, and played a role in the formation of Sarah PAC.
It's nice when a couple has common interests.
