Advertisement

What is your favorite TV show and why?

And what lessons for climate and clean energy communications do you think we can draw from the success of that TV show?

Feel free to name more than one show, by the way. And don’t all say “The Daily Show.”

You might do a little research on your show and find out what the ratings are. You may be surprised how few viewers it takes these days to make a successful show. For instance, by January 2008, Jon Stewart had “1.45 to 1.6 million viewers nightly, a high figure for cable television.” The Daily Show beat both Leno and Letterman in “the coveted 18–49 demographic for the month of October” 2010 with “1.3 million viewers in the demo, whereas the other two averaged 1.2 million viewers.”

One reason for posing these questions is that I’m interested in the viewing habits of climate hawks.

Note: I’ve no doubt that some CP readers don’t watch much TV. I always recommend people watch some TV, not just because there is probably more high-quality TV on now than there has been for a very long time (along with a lot more low-quality TV, of course), but also because if you want to know how to influence the American public, you have to start with their favorite medium.

Advertisement

I watch a lot of TV, myself. I’m quite keen on Glee, which demonstrates, if nothing else, that there is an audience for very hard-core snark, as if we didn’t already know that.