MSNBC Host Struggles To Sell Books And Generate Ratings

MORNING JOKE

Scarborough Book Bombs, New TV, Radio Ratings Bleak





*** EXCLUSIVE ***
*** NEW: WHY DID MORNING JOE SKIP SCHULTZ APPEARANCE? ***


For "Morning Joe", the backstabbing has officially backfired.

Over the past several weeks, this site has been tracking the attempt by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to make money bashing his former friends in any and every available public venue. With a new book to peddle, could attacking onetime colleagues from his conservative days fuel sales? New data from the publishing world, as well as radio and TV, provide the answer.

To promote the release, the former GOP congressman turned radio and TV host appeared on left-leaning television shows such as The View and did interviews with the New York Times and Newsweek. Each time, he was quick to bash Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, and other key conservative figures.

In recent years, Scarborough has found that turning against fellow Republicans could be good for the pocketbook, securing him the morning gig at MSNBC and a syndicated talk show airing on WABC / New York and elsewhere.


But in new data released late this week, Scarborough has struck out in every category: TV, radio and publishing. His widely-touted The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise has bombed, selling just 6432 copies since its 9 June release, according to new Bookscan figures. At Amazon, it has already dropped out of the top 100, currently ranked 166.

By contrast, conservative author Mark Levin remained in first place after three full months, according to Bookscan, selling another 35,595 units to push closer to a possible one million sales mark in the weeks and months to come.


In radio and TV, the news for Scarborough wasn't any better: in newly-released Arbitron PPM data for the month of May, Joe's radio talk show generated a mere 1.6 share in the key 25-54 demographic. With that number including one hour of Don Imus's morning show, it reveals a huge gap between WABC's more liberal morning programming and its highly-successful conservative afternoon lineup featuring Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Levin.

Finally, Morning Joe's MSNBC ratings aren't exactly something to crow about, either: on Wednesday of this week, the most recent Nielsen ratings your Radio Equalizer could obtain, Scarborough turned in a weak 0.3 household rating, which translates to an average of 277,000 average viewers and just 93,000 in the 25-54 demo.


These numbers don't lie and the lesson for any budding Morning Joe-types out there is clear: the audience isn't stupid. They can sniff out a backstabbing weasel with remarkable speed, putting an early end to Scarborough's transparent get-rich-quick scheme.



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