Posted on 10/15/2004 12:27:35 AM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
CNN's Dobbs May Get Prime-time Slot
In yet another effort to shore up their sagging ratings, CNN's top brass are thinking about giving Lou Dobbs a juicy prime-time spot.
According to New York Daily News business correspondent Phyllis Furman, the network execs are considering moving their top-rated financial commentator's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" show to a higher-profile niche in prime time.
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"It's being discussed," a CNN exec told the Daily News, which added that the move would not take place until after the November elections. Nor has any specific prime-time spot been decided upon, a CNN source told Furman.
"With the presidential election less than a month away, it's silly to speculate on programming changes," CNN spokesman Matthew Furman told the News.
A jewel in CNN's otherwise lackluster lineup, Dobbs has hit home with his vocal crusade against U.S. companies outsourcing U.S. jobs overseas.
Since the beginning of the summer, ratings for "Lou Dobbs Tonight" have surged 25 percent, to 472,000 households, and Dobbs is outpacing CNN overall, which is up 13 percent, the News revealed. As a result, ad rates for his show are among CNN's highest.
"He's the most familiar financial news personality on television," Horizon Media director of research Brad Adgate told Furman.
But moving Dobbs from his 6 p.m. spot at the end of the business day could be risky, Tom Rosentiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, told the News. "The prime-time audience has a different mind-set."
Moreover, Dobbs, who refuses to comment on the matter, may not be interested in any move from his current spot, CNN insiders told the News.
Since the beginning of the summer, ratings for "Lou Dobbs Tonight" have surged 25 percent
WTG Dobbs! He's got the best Conservative show on TV. His reporting is excellent and there is no shouting and nonsense like on the Fox Channel.
Didn't dobbs have some sort of 'ethical' problems that caused him to lose a job several years ago???
He left CNN for Space.com...I think he gave them favorable coverage...
I think it was a contract dispute and he walked. I believe he started some Space.com site before going back to CNN. Eternal Warming is right. It's a very good show.
It is a pity that Fox doesn't have Kudlow and Cramer. Actually, I like Dennis Miller too now that I think about it, and I think they share the same channel. Maybe CNBC is coming around. The problem with Fox News is that it is way too tabloid a lot of the time.
TRANSLATION: Time to cut O'Reilly off at the knees while he's down and go for the kill.
Last Gasp from CNN.
Dobbs isn't doing business coverage perse. His show is about issues like the O'Reilly show. He has very prominent guests. It's excellent.
Agreed.
This must be a real problem for CNN! Imagine their only success being a Conservative News program. LOL
I doubt it. His ratings have gone up since the beginning of the summer and that has nothing to do with O'Reilly. Dobbs deserves a better slot. He also deserves to not have his show canceled all the time so that maroon Chris Matthews can do political commentary in Lou's spot. Dobbs should be doing the commentary, not Matthews.
Lou Dobbs is not conservative.
What?
He's a whole lot more conservative than anyone else at CNN.
In what way is he a conservative? He's a Dick Gephardt protectionist.
Yes he is. He's a Republican now turned Independent like many of us.
That applies to Pat Buchanan too,
and he's always been called "conservative."
LOL. Go Peroutka! Go Kucinich!
Pat IS a cultural conservative. He's an economic populist/protectionist. Seal the borders! That's NOT conservative.
What is Lou Dobbs' cultural ideology? Life, 2nd Amendment, Property etc.?
I don't know about that but I seem to remember that after 9/11 he started wearing a American Flag Lapel on the collar of his suit and CNN tried to force him to take it off and he refused. And he came out and said if they pushed the matter he was going to leave the network when his contract expired. And then the matter was quickly dropped.
Not that I know of. He went to do some space type stuff for a while. When that didn't do well, CNN asked him to come back.
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