I’ve held off on adding my own cent and a quarter on –not to mention LMFAOing at– the ludicrously minute audience that Trump TV has generated since it burst on the media landscape late last month as the way that its namesake could stick yet another mangled finger in the eye of all of those–ahem–fake news outlets that can’t seem to get their facts aligned with his version of them. Besides, keener observers such as THE DAILY BEAST’s Leigh Kimmons had already gotten well out ahead of me:
America’s major TV networks—NBC, ABC, CBS, and even Fox News—suspended their pooled coverage of Trump on Mon.day in solidarity, acting as the catalyst for the White House to launch “Trump TV: The Essentials Station,” a 24-hour YouTube livestream of Trump’s greatest hits. Plugging the stream, which is hosted on the existing White House YouTube channel, Trump’s deputy assistant Kaelan Dorr moaned that “the press, in some cases, reported inaccurately or not at all on the Administration’s many record-breaking accomplishments,” and floated Trump TV as a one-stop shop for all things Trump.
The only issue is that people don’t seem interested. The channel launched at 7 p.m. with around 8,000 viewers, but the audience had dropped below 4,000 just 90 minutes later. By 9 p.m. Eastern, the stream was attracting only about 3,000 viewers, a tiny audience compared with the millions watching the major networks at primetime. By around 10:40 p.m., just 2,425 people were watching. It reached a new nadir at around 3.30 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, with just 1,123 watching a rerun of a speech he gave alongside Britain’s King Charles in Windsor a year ago. The channel has 3.18 million followers, so that’s a measly .076 percent.
The byline-shy ARKANSAS PUBLIC ADVOCATE EXECUTIVE TEAM followed up on the spot check that Kimmons’ brehtren did last week:
The White House’s recently launched Trump TV stream drew fewer than 100 concurrent viewers during an overnight observation, according to the Daily Beast, a sharp decline from the audience recorded when the channel began broadcasting in September. The Daily Beast reported that 91 people were watching at about 2 a.m. Eastern time.
So I finally bit the bullet and clicked it early this morning. The rolling counter at this writing reads 69. Somehow that seems appropriate, because what I’m watching even in comparison to other user-generated video feeds–which is basically what this “TV station” is–truly sucks. It’s strictly a video playback–no commercial formatting (not even for My Pillow?) and nothing except a stagnant lower third reminder to “text VP t0 45470 for updates from the White House”. I’ve held off on doing that for now–I’ve got more than enough random texts from strange phone numbers asking if I somehow lost “Mary’s” number and had forgotten about our coffee date.
But I did spend enough time to get an educated handle of WTF actually is going on. Yeah, on a proportionate basis the metrics look putrid. And apparently the “experts” at THE DAILY BEAST never bothered to double-check that as of August 24th YouTube had adjusted the definition of what exactly is a view (it’s not necessarily a viewER for the scatey-eighth time!). THEMATIC’s Audrey Marshall did and she provided this handy checklist that would have informed Kimmons et al that even those “modest” counts they scoffed at were likely inflated by rubberneckers like moi.
And let’s at least allow for the fact that at least in this century program performances are judged by live-plus-whatever cumulative viewing. To that end, yesterday’s press briefing where Susan Dell acted as a zombie prop to inform 70 million children they were “gonna be reallll rich” from Trump accounts has skyrocketed to 257,000 views in the matter of 15 hours. That’s just under 8 per cent of the posted subscriber count. Sounds a l’il better, no? Not when you consider that a 2024 MEDIAPOST analysis of average daily reach–the metric that YouTube is paralleling with their revised relaxed requirements–points out approximately 45 per cent of all U.S. TV households watch something at some point over a 24-hour period. Indeed, there’s room for improvement.
It didn’t have to be THIS bad, genuises. In the wake of yesterday’s reminder that a far more successful attempt to curry the attention of patriots, ‘Mericans and G-d-fearing Christians was having a milestone birthday, it reminded me that the “braintrust” behind the American answer to Pravda (hi, Natalie, how’s that frozen shoulder from that diaper bag you’re lugging around doing?) had more than enough precedence to draw from. THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER’s Britta Miller celebrated it with testimonials from more enduring personalities like Laura Ingraham and Steve Doocy:
Ingraham told the Washington Examiner that that same passion is at the heart of Fox News, “keeping our sense of purpose fresh, 30 years later.”Ingraham said many people did not think Fox would last very long, in comparison to NBC and other media giants. “Boy, did that change,” Ingraham told the Washington Examiner. “So it’s hilarious that again, people like laughing at it, but they were discounting the possibility that Fox would ever be a major player in the media landscape, and the same can be said of the United States, right?”She compared Fox to the “ragtag group of colonies” that Europe never thought would prevail. “Both the U.S. and Fox were underestimated from the start,” Ingraham said.
“As we look back at 30 years of Fox News Channel, for me personally, it has been an honor that I’ve been able to be part of the team that, for two generations, has woken up America and said, ‘Hey, good morning. Here’s the latest,’ and let people know what’s going on in the world,” Doocy said. “Because if you want to know where you are on any day, you need to know exactly where you are. And if you don’t know what’s going on in the world, you’re kind of missing out. So I feel honored to have continued to wake up America.“
Ass-kissing hyperbole aside, like it or not, it’s working, as AXIOS’ most recent analysis from September 29th dispassionately demonstrates:
Fox News turns 30 on Wednesday with a distinction few legacy TV networks can claim: Its ratings lead over rivals has never been wider… Fox News’ ratings lead over its cable news rivals hit its widest point ever last year, according to Nielsen data, and the network appears poised to maintain that historically wide margin this year, depending on the midterms. Last year, the network averaged 1.69 million total-day viewers, compared with 551,000 for MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, and 432,000 for CNN. In primetime, that margin was even wider. Fox News averaged 2.65 million daily primetime viewers, compared with 915,000 for MS NOW and 573,000 for CNN. Through Sept. 29, Fox is outpacing CNN and MS NOW combined this year in both total day viewership and primetime.
Because I was fortunate enough to have been tasked with heading a come-to-Jesus study commissioned by FOX’s chairman when their juggernaut was mushrooming I have more insight than most as to how FOX NEWS got to this point. It superserved its audience with a cornucopia of personalities and content that played to the expectations of a very specific audience. We also looked at detailed duplication studies between it and our other networks–not to mention its significant competition among both news and general appeal networks–to better gauge where growth opportunities and cannibalistic concern both existed. In the cold harsh world of ratings, uncomfortable truths emerge. FOX NEWS viewers disproportionately watch prime time procedural dramas, daytime game shows, lots of live sports and recently released theatrical movies. Some of that crossover is grounded in demographics. But it also speaks to the “comfort food” allure that curates loyal fan bases–done with a balanced diet rather than a nonstop firehose of one person’s omnipresence.
You might also recall this is not the first time that the concept of a Trump-branded channel has been floated. A video component of Truth Social labeled TMTG+ was announced in the spring of 2022 under the aegis of a Trump toady and former congressman Devin Nunes; in a musing last year I recounted that a former FOX colleague of mine had been recruited to develop a slate of original content for it well beyond merely speeches. They were also looking for a “contact acquisitions professional” to supplement those efforts with movies, dramas and even game shows that would fill out the lineup. My experience made me an ideal candidate–not my words, but the words of the ex-colleague who recommended I move to a next level. Well, TMTG+ never did launch, Nunes faded from the picture and none of us even got the chance to put our talents to work. To the best of my knowledge none of us have been called in about Trump TV–I know for sure my phone hasn’t vibrated.
I guess I should be relieved that’s the case. I’m not sure I would want anything to do with the goosestepping dreck that was reactively thrown out there that’s drawing such mockable numbers. Maybe the eponymous bloviator can delude what’s left of his mind to think otherwise, but you’re not seeing any cabinet member or aide out there defending it. Not even developing an ad or an on-air spot to hype its performance. You know who did do that? Roger Ailes and the FOX NEWS marketing team headed by one Jason Klarman, a disciple going back to his ill-fated AMERICA’S TALKING crash-and-burn that was his eyes on the ground during our seminal study. Klarman would specifically position billboards updated with the sorts of stories Axios reported on along the Lincoln Tunnel approach roads going in and out of New Jersey, where MSNBC’s headquarters were located at the time. He strategically bought signage on the subway concourse level of the Rockefeller Center complex used by employees of both FOX and NBC as a shortcut to avoid being out in harsh weather on their way to their respective HQs located directly across Sixth Avenue from each other.
Klarman’s actually not only still alive but he’s currently FOX NEWS’ Chief Digital and Marketing Officer. Prior to that he was in charge of FOX Nation, the company’s streaming offshoot that his biography reminds included the following accomplishments:
Klarman oversaw all operations, content and subscriber acquisitions. He transformed the streaming service into a lifestyle and entertainment platform with offerings such as Yellowstone 150 with Kevin Costner, Top Combat Pilot with Dennis Quaid, Liberty or Death: Boston Tea Party with Rob Lowe and Duck Family Treasure, among the nearly 10,000 hours of content on the platform.
In other words, pretty much the job that TMTG+ was advertising for four years ago . And while FOX Nation is by no means a standout in the digital landscape–their metrics are conveniently private–I would be willing to lay a prop bet down they’re above 69 concurrent and 255,000 cumulative views.
One would think with all of the other former FOX NEWS personalities already in the current administration someone would have at least have known Klarman well enough to pick his brain, let alone hire him. Assuming they indeed were preparing for this major launch for two years as purported.
I know Klarman has done well enough to have a IDGAF ‘tude at this point, so consider that ship sailed. It would take a lot of cache and groveling to even get me to consider consulting myself for a train wreck of this magnitude. I have been part of platforms with even lesser metrics so I’m not beyond at least thinking about it if asked.
But nah, you all know EXACTLY what you’re doing, and I know you think those numbers are “YUGE”. Keep telling yourselves that. The fact that y’all do is one of the few things that gives me any hope at all of late.
Until next time…