George Alexander Louis: U.S. TV ratings name royal baby as a yawn
George Alexander Louis, what happened? Your royal-baby highness’ birth was supposed to be one of the TV events of the year.
Instead, Americans have mostly yawned at the hyperventilating coverage of baby George, born Monday to Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton. The infant’s name -- he’ll be officially known as Prince George of Cambridge -- was revealed in news reports early Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, ABC’s soon-to-be-retiring Barbara Walters hosted a 10 p.m. special about the royal baby that drew dismal ratings. The special averaged 4.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, finishing behind NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and even a repeat of the CBS drama “Person of Interest.”
And that’s not all. On Monday, when the cable news networks went wall-to-wall with birth coverage, their ratings were actually down a bit compared with the previous week, when the news cycle was focused on the George Zimmerman verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting case.
Either Americans aren’t wowed anymore by royals, or they have decided they don’t like babies, or both. Whatever the case, news outlets need to find a new story, stat.
What did you think of the royal baby coverage?
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