Topline<\/p>\n
An hour-long interview with the widow of political commentator Charlie Kirk on CBS criticized for its editorial approach seems to have kept away both big advertisers and viewers in what could be a defining moment for Bari Weiss, the newly appointed editor in chief of CBS News. <\/p>\n
Erika Kirk, right, during a town hall moderated by Bari Weiss, CBS News’ editor-in-chief. <\/p>\n
CBS via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
Weiss on Saturday moderated the town-hall style interview with Erika Kirk that touched on political polarization, antisemitism and her Christian faith, but has faced criticism for a relatively fawning approach<\/a>. <\/p>\n The program was a major departure from usual broadcast news norms, with Weiss hosting (news executives don\u2019t often put themselves in front of the camera) and in the general format: CBS doesn’t generally give over prime time to its news division, much less for town halls on trending topics. <\/p>\n The much-hyped event\u2014CBS rolled out excerpts of the interview for days before across social platforms\u2014didn\u2019t seem to move the ratings needle, with early numbers showing just 1.5 million people tuned in live, according to Puck founding partner \u200b\u200bDylan Byers<\/a>. <\/p>\n If those ratings hold (Nielsen should release its numbers on Thursday), they are generally in line with programming from the two previous Saturdays: 1.1 million on Dec. 6 (the animated holiday special “Reindeer in Here\u201d) and 1.4 million on Nov. 29 (\u201cNCIS: Origins\u201d). <\/p>\n More significantly, big-name advertisers who usually buy primetime spots on CBS\u2014like Amazon and Procter & Gamble\u2014were absent during the Kirk town hall, Variety<\/a> first reported, and instead so-called direct-response advertisers that pay much less like SuperBeets, a dietary supplement, and home-repair service HomeServe.com filled most of the commercial breaks (some bigger companies like Spotify and TikTok did appear). <\/p>\n Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We\u2019re launching text message alerts so you’ll always know the biggest stories shaping the day\u2019s headlines. Text \u201cAlerts\u201d to (201) 335-0739<\/a> or sign up here<\/a>: joinsubtext.com\/forbes.<\/a><\/p>\n Why Did Big Advertisers Stay Away From The Kirk Townhall?<\/p>\n Wharton marketing professor David Reibstein said mainstream advertisers have gotten \u201cgun shy\u201d when it comes to controversial or politically affiliated programs: \u201cThere\u2019s a fear by advertisers that, if I advertise on this program, whatever effect it has on the viewer will spill over into the commercial break.\u201d Advertisers don\u2019t want to align themselves with controversy, he said. The combination of Kirk as a controversial political figure\u2014and the unknown response to a new program format\u2014likely combined to scare off some number of advertisers, Reibstein said. Direct-response advertisers, on the other hand, often fish for lower-cost slots on television, Reibstein says, or they pay less for their spots in exchange for the network choosing when to play their commercials, as opposed to buying them during a specific program. <\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline An hour-long interview with the widow of political commentator Charlie Kirk on CBS criticized for its editorial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[71729,9488,13477,104352,93,16672,61,60,65249,104351,104350,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-195576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bari-weiss","9":"tag-cbs-news","10":"tag-charlie-kirk","11":"tag-ellison","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-erika-kirk","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-paramount-skydance","17":"tag-television-advertising","18":"tag-town-hall","19":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}