Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2008 > November > 06
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Hank Hill heading for ABC? And election ratings break records
Is Hank Hill about to be resurrected?
ABC is rumored to be ready to pick up “King of the Hill” when its 13th season ends on Fox this spring. Fox announced late last week that it would end production at that time.
Mike Judge, “King” creator and Austin resident, has a midseason comedy coming to ABC, “The Goode Family,” so maybe the two animated shows can be paired.
Election night ratings break TV audience records
According to Nielsen Media Research data, between 7 and 10 p.m. Tuesday, more than 40 percent of U.S. TV households watched election returns. That amounts to a record-breaking 71.5 million viewers for all the broadcast and cable networks combined.
Although the outcome was all but academic once the networks started calling individual states for Democrat Barack Obama around 9 p.m. Central Time, the non-suspense nevertheless outdrew the 2000 race (the drawn out George W. Bush vs. Al Gore contest) by more than 10 million viewers.
Among the broadcast networks, ABC, anchored by Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, attracted the biggest audience, averaging 13 million viewers through prime time. CNN was tops among cable news networks and second to ABC, with 12.3 million viewers. CNN says that’s the largest audience the network has had in its entire 28-year history.
Third place went to NBC, which delivered some 12 million viewers. Fox News, with 9 million viewers, raked in 9 million viewers — its second-largest audience of all time. CBS, with Katie Couric at the helm, finished fifth on the night, with 7.8 million viewers. Bringing up the rear were MSNBC (5.9 million) and Fox broadcast TV (5.2 million).
If the late-night ratings are rolled into the mix, CNN won the entire night, with 13.3 million viewers. It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last time, when the cable news network beat out broadcasters for political coverage. CNN led the way during the Democratic convention and several primary nights.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Entertainment
