CNN Ratings Soar with the Balloon Boy

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Posted on October 20th, 2009 by Yuliya Torosjan

By now it would probably be impossible to find a conscious adult in the country that has not heard the story of the Balloon Boy. As an article in Columbia Journalism Review rightfully points out, the balloon boy story fascinates with “its irresistible mix of human drama and utter strangeness.”

The obvious effect of this fascination is a ratings boost to the news programming that followed the balloon boy saga. As we see in the chart and graph below, the CNN ratings skyrocketed with the balloon’s flight last Thursday as the story first “aired.”

chart

graph

The set top box tune in to CNN Newsroom between 1 and 4 pm EST on October 15^th was more than 1.6 times higher than on the three previous Thursdays at the same time. The tune in to The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer more than doubled in comparison to each of the three previous Thursdays. At 6:14pm EST, CNN reported that young Falcon Heene had been found. The story’s arc culminated for the night, and the prime time CNN ratings returned to normal levels.

The less obvious effects of spectacular viewership spikes on breaking news may prove more interesting.

First of all, it is clear that the news shocks should be incorporated in the models of TV viewership. Granted, most of us could not have predicted the ballon boy event in advance. However, the high impact events such as basketball playoffs and weather fluctuations are for the most part much more predictable and must be taken into account by models of television ratings.

Additionally, even the unexpected events should not throw us completely off guard, as far as the television viewership is concerned. The sweeping numbers of viewers flocking to CNN were exposed to promotions on October 15^th. Ideally, program marketers should be able to modify promotion schedules in real time to take advantage of the lift.

The data reported here is based on a nationally projectable dataset of Direct TV subscribers.

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