At least that’s what TiVo says today based on second-by-second viewership data it compiles from its DVR users. GOP candidate Mitt Romney’s jab at Big Bird — which took place at 9:27:44 PM ET — had the biggest audience across all platforms. (PBS Paula Kerger defended the network this morning.) But networks had different high points. For example, Fox News had a big moment at 9:38:22 when Romney, discussing the Obama Administration’s energy investment initiatives, said: “I have a friend who says that you don’t just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers.” The network’s evening news audience has an unusually large number of Republican households, TiVo says. Yet NBC, which attracts more Democrats to its evening newscast, spiked at 9:18:44 PM ET when President Obama said that “For 18 months leading up to the election [Romney's] been running on this tax plan, and now, five weeks before the election, he’s saying that his big bold idea is ‘Never Mind…’” And MSNBC, whose audience is even more heavily weighted toward Democrats, had a top moment at 9:41:16 when the president mentioned his grandmother in a defense of Medicare and Social Security.
Romney Attack On PBS Was The “Most-Watched” Moment Of Last Night’s Debate
By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday October 4, 2012 @ 6:50pm EDTTags: Mitt Romney, PBS, President Barack Obama, TiVo
This article was printed from http://www.deadline.com/2012/10/romney-pbs-presidential-debate-tivo-most-watched/
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PBS is great. My wife and I watch it, so do our kids; however, not a penny of tax dollars should be used to support it.
Of course not. Big Bird is a member of the 1%. He can darn well buy his own bird seed.
Why not? (@Together?) And do you really think contributions from viewers like you are sufficient to keep you, your wife and kids entertained?
Why do we need PBS? Where else can we go to watch old Brit-Coms and other dull programing.
Yes, let’s just keep the public pacified with mindless sitcoms from CBS and ABC. I’ll take British programming over the crap that’s produced in the States.
I’m confused. How can they measure a “most watched” moment? It’s not like viewers knew in advance what moment would be their favorite, and they all decided to watch right then. Or is this re-watches later, on the Internet or something? Would love an explanation of how they measure this.
Okay, wait, I guess I get it now. DVR to the rescue.
“Romney Attack on PBS” ? There is nothing correct about that statement. Romney said: “I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to keep spending money on things, borrowing money from China to pay for it.”
Romney said he would cut the subsidy for PBS, then he said he loved Big Bird and was tired of borrowing from China to help pay for PBS. That may be considered an attack. An equivelant amount of the subsidy to PBS for one year is spent in six hours at the Pentagon.
I love you @dennis.
And I would add to that: When the debater has the bad taste to talk about firing the moderator it’s just plain rude and if I were in a staff meeting, I mean if I were the moderator, I would feel attacked.
Does this mean viewers rewound to these moments? Or does it mean they stopped watching after these moments? Not sure I understand what this stat means or why I should care.
Pbs doesn’t even take up a whole 1% of the budget and costs each American a little over a buck. What harm is it doing and how is that going to help the deficit? Plus it helps educate hundreds of millions of kids. The pros out weigh the cons by far.
Since they take so little money, they won’t miss it.
On the world’s scale, you use so little oxygen. But wouldn’t you miss it if it were taken away?
PBS gets about 15% of its funding from the government. If that 15% were to get cut, it wouldn’t be the end of PBS, just like you losing 15% of your oxygen wouldn’t be the end of you. But that 15% loss of oxygen sure would impact your ability to function on a daily basis, wouldn’t it?
PBS cost .012% of the federal budget. It is the most cost effective early education in existence paying back more than the cost.
Tell you what, let’s keep subsidizing PBS and stop subsidizing big oil.
It’s typical. Something that is a tiny, tiny sliver of the Federal budget is the thing that right-wingers go frothing at the mouth about. Sure, get rid of the only broadcasting outlet that airs any educational programming or culture. That’ll balance the budget. Just don’t touch those bloated, wasteful government contracts in Republican districts.
Agreed. This is nothing more than the usual GOP talking points. PBS makes up a minute portion of the overall Federal budget and cutting its funding would do nothing to help the deficit or the economy. Romney is just trying to makes points with the base (something he shouldn’t have to do at this point). Even if he were elected it’s doubtful PBS’s funding would be completely cut, which makes Romney pathetic.
Romney is not trying to “make” points with the base, he is trying to make a point. Stop spending our federal budget on frivolous things. In our house when we are trying to save money, we stop spending it on unnecessary items. I feel sorry for anyone who would use PBS for “educational purposes”, the dumbing down of a nation as we speak.
More money on getting young adults killed overseas, please!
I agree, no fivolous expenses like tax breaks for fat cats. If that’s supposed to drive down the unemployment rate, then why is the rate so high? Clearly, it’s not working as it should and needs some adjustment.
My proposal is tha the fat cats must EARN their tax breaks. When unemployment is down to 8%, they get a break, and again at 7%, etc. If it goes up, their taxes go back up accordingly. They’re all about profit motive, right? That’s a profit motive! No free lunch.
Since it such a tiny, tiny sliver, they won’t miss it, will they?
And just how much money does the licensing of Big Bird and those other characters bring in? I bet they are members of the “1%”.
People read/heard about the Big Bird moment then went looking for the Big Bird moment? He’s a famous dude – why wouldn’t this be the case? Had it been a similarly incongruous “Brangelina” mention it would have been the same. Obama understands this. He seized on it the very next day which became a self-fulfilling prophesy as news for anyone weaned on “Sesame Street” and can’t imagine a life where Big Bird isn’t available to children. It’s actually sort of a classic Republican move (meaning what Obama did with it the next day.) In viral terms Romney the villain cutting off that harmless dodo Big Bird at the knees, like, with a crowbar! In a way not unlike (although a mirror image) of virally going large against the French (in symbol) with “Freedom Fries.” That’s what Obama did with it today and the press generally ran with it. Seized on universally recognizable Big Bird’s pocketbook as a symptomatic toxin. As instant meaning galvanizing efficiently basically in media terms. Irrelevant, devoid of contextual facts, presented as fraught with meaning within withering sarcastic rhetoric. Classic Obama. Now you know that it’s true.
I thought Romney’s point was an excellent one: “Is this so important that we should borrow money from China to pay for it?”
Sesame Street rakes in the money and can stand on its own. David Koch pays for “NOVA”. The very idea that the government needs a propaganda outlet is ludicrous.
Look, if PBS gets 15% of its funding from the government then it just means they need to make up for that 15% funding in a different way. I don’t believe they have business supported advertising on PBS. Change the way you do things. ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CW, MYTV, all support themselves with a advertising. This just means PBS needs to start selling advertising like every other network. This does not mean the end of PBS.
PBS is more than just brit-coms, and more than just kids-programs. it has well balanced news, documentaries, science and history programs, and even hosts college lectures and professional advancement courses. The kids programs, however, are well done and follow very good educational process, more so than commercial kids programming designed as advertisements for toys.
PBS is such a small portion of the budget, and it merely seeds the basics to allow their own funding to take place.
Our nation is failing in math, science, and literacy. now more than ever we need to educate our citizens, children too!, in order to continue holding a place in the developed world.
Penny foolish.
I like PBS as much as the next person, maybe more than many, but think about this — What does PBS do? It produces some TV shows and documentaries, as well as a few children’s educational programs, buys others from BBC or universities, and is backed by private endowments and sponsers. All tax free at all levels, of course. The United States “Defense” budget probably covers one of (if not THE) largest and most complex infrastructures on the planet. How can PBS possibly cost as much as 6 hours or even a half an hour as the enormous energy that goes into the maintenance and movement of personnel and material AND R&D of the U.S. Defense budget? Are we getting our money’s worth from PBS then?