Fickle Election Audience Threatens Network Shows

Election blamed for disrupting viewing, hurting programs like 'Lipstick Jungle'
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 10, 2008 3:31 AM CST
Fickle Election Audience Threatens Network Shows
Actors Lucy Liu, Peter Krause and Blair Underwood from the show "Dirty Sexy Money." Election coverage disrupted ratings of this and other shows.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Election coverage disrupted America's viewing habits, playing havoc with the ratings of some network shows that could soon be cut if they don't recover their audiences, reports the Los Angeles Times. ABC's Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies, NBC's Lipstick Jungle and the new critically acclaimed CBS comedy Worst Week, Gary Unmarried and the Eleventh Hour are all in trouble.

"In the first four weeks of the season, each week one night was taken out by a debate," said a CBS research. "That hurt the continuity of returning shows, increased the ratings of the cable news networks and increased the competitiveness of entertainment cable channels." Other analysts believe the "missing" 6 million news-obsessed viewers were not fans of TV entertainment to begin with.
(More election coverage stories.)

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