Dec 21 2008
PLANET IN PERIL
The second installment of the “Planet in Peril” series landed in third place in the adults 25-54 demographic and fourth place in viewers for its 9 p.m.-11 p.m. Thursday premiere, Nielsen Media Research said, s despite strong ratings for the original four-hour series “Planet in Peril,” in October 2007.
“Planet in Peril” averaged 426,000 viewers in the demo to Fox News Channel’s 595,000 and Headline News’ 490,000. “Peril” was only able to best MSNBC’s 380,000 in the demo. But it fell to fourth place with 1 million viewers to Fox News Channel’s 2.7 million, MSNBC’s 1.1 million and Headline News’s 1 million.
But the network didn’t seem upset by the ratings. “The worldwide issues ‘Planet in Peril’ reported on are important ones, and the documentary represents the quality journalism that CNN stands for,” the network said Monday.
Perhaps the rating slump comes from the fact that last year’s edition was promoted and screened for weeks before the actual airdate. Whatever the reason for the slump, I hope the network goes ahead with a part three next year.
