Al Jazeera's first US figures 'so low Nielsen couldn't even count them'
Al Jazeera America has started off with pitifully low ratings. According to Nielsen data for Monday, AJAM’s most popular primetime show in the first week was “America Tonight,” with just 27,000 viewers.
Just 27,000 for America Tonight
In comparison, Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” drew 2.97 million, MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow” had 970,000, and CNN’s “Anderson Cooper” scored 627,000.
AJ's opening show on August 20 averaged 22,000, below Nielsen’s minimum accuracy threshold. "This means that the number is essentially an estimate, as Nielsen couldn’t accurately count the viewers." says Variety.
Its highest- rated show last week was Thursday's “Real Money with Ali Velshi,” which only drew 54,000 viewers,according to TV Newser.
By comparison, Al Jazeera America’s main Twitter handle has more followers than its highest-rated show last week, with over 75,000 followers .
The Tuesday debuts of “The Stream” and “America Tonight” averaged 38,000 and 34,000 viewers, respectively.
The Thursday noon edition of “News Live,” on the other hand, averaged 40,000, while the Saturday 2 p.m. show attracted 8,000 more viewers. Meanwhile, “Inside Story” reeled in 41,000 viewers Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
TV Newser says launch ratings were pretty low by traditional cable news standards - not surprising , as AJ replaced the low-rated Current TV. It is currently broadcast in only 40 million homes and lost several million homes when AT&T dropping the network on launch day.
Still the Qatar royals who are funding the network , employing 800 journalists and setting up 11 news hubs across the US must be hoping for something much better than this.