Eisner's show premieres tonight

[crazy4wdw]

Michael Eisner's interview show premieres tonight (3/28) at 9:00 PM EST, CNBC.

 

[2Xited4Disney]

What is the Premise.. .I am a little confused

 

[crazy4wdw]

It is an interview show where he asks questions of scheduled guests (like Larry King). Martha Stewart is his guest tonight.

 

[DVCconvert]

Martha Stewart is his guest tonight.

Is the interview being conducted in the Grand Canyon?? -- because I can't imagine any other venue large enough to accomondate those two egos!

 

[WillyDogs]

I watched the show and rather enjoyed it. Not so much for the actual content, but it seemed to me that he strategically picked certain people to be on that fit "his" way of doing things. Martha Stewart likes to micromanage things at her company and he brought up the comparison between his role at Disney and her role in her company. (my personal favorite was when he talked about changing the shampoo's in hotels by micromanaging)

There was a great little moment when the CEO of Sony pointed out why the merger between Pixar and Disney was good. I thought I saw Mr. Eisner squirm a bit in his chair on that one.

Next week's episode looks pretty good. Regis Philbin is on and criticizes Eisner for killing "Millionaire". He hits Eisner with some tough questions and turns the interview on him. Eisner does admit his error though.

I think Eisner is a good example of why we impose term limits on people in power. Eisner came in, did his job, and did it well in the beginning. He's more business like and less imagination and magic. Disney needed that to regain its success as a corporation. BUT... once Disney was back on its feet, it needed the creative and magical aspect, but Eisner had gained power and as they say "power corrupts". I think he felt that it was his vision that "fixed" Disney and therefore everything he thought, felt, believed in was correct and the only way, which brought on more micromanaging.

I don't know if I really like the show that much, but I'll tune in next week to see Regis grill Eisner on how he screwed up royally with his show.

 

[Rence]

From the Drudge Report:

Former DISNEY Chairman Michael Eisner scored a zero rating in his talkshow host debut, NIELSEN claims. Eisner scored a 0.0 rating and 0 share on CNBC Tuesday night...

 

[Another Voice]

Some background on television ratings:

A Ratings Point represents 1% of all households with televisions. Currently a rating of 1.0 represents 1,102,139 homes. A Share point is the percentage of households watching TV during that time that watched to program.

On Tuesday, ‘American Idol’ had ratings of 17.9/27 – meaning that it was seen by 19,728,288 homes and an average of 27% of all homes watching television during that hour. Last Sunday’s ‘Desperate Housewives’ pulled in a 13.5/20 – meaning 14,878,827 households representing 20% of the homes watching TV at the time saw the gals. The ratings are split this way so that you can tell how well you're doing against the competition (the share), and the total size of you audience (the rating).

It should be noted the ratings The Drudge Report are quoting are called the “fast nationals”. They represent just a part of the total sample; these homes are wired with electronic boxes that automatically send the information in every night. These homes tend to be more urban and higher income than the country overall. The rest of the country is surveyed via phone calls or logs that people send in every week, so the final numbers take some time to compile.

The general trend is programs that appeal more to a well-to-do urban/suburban audience perform better in the overnights than in their final ratings. It’s generally a sure bet that a “business” show like Eisner’s will see it’s final numbers fall from their initial rating.

 

[Razor Roman]

I'd tune in if he had Katzenberg, Ovitz, and Roy on all at once

 

[Sarangel]

Eisner scored a 0.0 rating and 0 share on CNBC Tuesday night...

It’s generally a sure bet that a “business” show like Eisner’s will see it’s final numbers fall from their initial rating.

How do you fall from zero? I can't think of a better way to validate the public's opinion about him.

Sarangel

 

[Rence]

Drudge has posted some more details:

Former DISNEY Chairman Michael Eisner scored a zero rating in his talkshow host debut, NIELSEN claims. Eisner scored a 0.0 rating and 0 share on CNBC Tuesday night, pulling the lowest possible audience levels... 'Conversations w/ Michael Eisner' scratched with 95,000 viewers and scratched with 39,000 in Adults 25-54 .

 

[EUROPACL]

Didn't even know that he had a show....haven't watched any tv other then Discovery, History, A&E, HBO or Fox News in years.

 

[2Xited4Disney]

Drudge has posted some more details:

Former DISNEY Chairman Michael Eisner scored a zero rating in his talkshow host debut, NIELSEN claims. Eisner scored a 0.0 rating and 0 share on CNBC Tuesday night, pulling the lowest possible audience levels... 'Conversations w/ Michael Eisner' scratched with 95,000 viewers and scratched with 39,000 in Adults 25-54 .

So 56,000 people either under 25 or over 55 watched this.... that seems a little wierd to me

 

[manning]

Come on folks, Eisner did better than zero. The morning man on WGN radio was talking about it and said he got 0.0000 something. It's a start.

 

[crazy4wdw]

From the Los Angeles Times:

It's Not Such a Wonderful World for Eisner Show
Ex-Disney chief draws 95,000 in gabfest debut. But the select few are 'high-powered,' CNBC says.

By Scott Collins | Times Staff Writer
Posted March 30, 2006

For Michael Eisner, it's a small audience after all.

Once one of the most feared executives in Hollywood, Eisner's new job as biweekly TV talk show host isn't giving Sean Hannity or Larry King much to worry about.

Eisner, who ran Walt Disney Co. from 1984 to 2005, tanked with the 6 p.m. Tuesday premiere of "Conversations With Michael Eisner," his new show for financial-news cable channel CNBC.

"Conversations" drew just 95,000 total viewers — including 39,000 in the key 25-to-54 age cohort — according to Nielsen Media Research.

The program lagged far behind its cable-news competitors, including Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" (1.4 million viewers), CNN's "Larry King Live" (1.1 million), MSNBC's "Rita Cosby Live & Direct" (371,000) and Headline News' "Prime News Tonight" (292,000).

CNBC, owned by NBC Universal, has long struggled with its evening lineup, with previous talk shows starring magazine editor Tina Brown, tennis great John McEnroe and comedian Dennis Miller failing to build audiences.

But the Eisner debut was grim even by the network's standards. Its lead-in, a repeat of comedian Howie Mandel's game show "Deal or No Deal" from NBC, drew 518,000 viewers. That means that fewer than 1 out of 5 "Deal" viewers stuck around to see Eisner, an unusually low ratio.

Eisner's show, whose guests included Martha Stewart and Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer, was panned by critics.

CNBC said the results were better than they appeared.

"CNBC is very proud of 'Conversations With Michael Eisner' and we look forward to its next broadcast on April 26," network spokesman Kevin Goldman said in a statement.

"This is a program that is hosted by a former CEO for an audience of high-powered decision makers who aren't measured by Nielsen."

 

[exDS vet]

I think this is great. A flop from the gate. Honestly, I didn't even know Eisner was going to have a show, but then again, I wouldn't even know where to find CNBC on my digital cable anyway. Nobody watches that "network" anyway. You know it's bad when he can't even get on MSNBC. At least there, he might have topped 100,000 for the first show.

 

[DisFlan]

I watched a couple of minutes of Eisner just to see what the format would be. Ouch. The show probably won't be around long - he's too full of himself to make an effective interviewer. And to be honest, I don't really care what a post-Disney Eisner has to say.

I'm watching Squawk Box on CNBC right now and I check the channel throughout the day, but no doubt about it, their evening programming sucks. It always has - their main focus is daytime market and economic reporting. If Eisner had actively planned to hide his show, he couldn't have picked a better place than an evening spot on CNBC.


Disflan