Casey Anthony: Did Oprah Winfrey’s exit spur interest? - Hal

by mom_in_il Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:32 pm

Casey Anthony: Did Oprah Winfrey’s exit spur interest?
posted by halboedeker on September, 16 2011 1:26 PM

Why did the Casey Anthony story grip so much of America?

Bill Shine, Fox News executive vice president of programming, offered a theory today.

“It was a story, in terms of Americans and people who work in news, that surprised everybody,” Shine told me. “The reason I think it became what it was is because ‘Oprah’ is off the air. People across the country, especially many women, were searching for a story in that time period.”

Shine added that he couldn’t prove the theory, and he said he had no comment about reporting by Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera on the Anthony story.

But there’s something to Shine’s theory, at least locally. WFTV-Channel 9 aired the “The Oprah Winfrey Show” finale in May, then quickly decided to preempt repeats to cover the Anthony trial. The trial scored big numbers for WFTV and other local stations.

After the trial, the “Oprah” repeats were doing such weak ratings that WFTV pulled the show in August.

Yet Winfrey’s influence remains strong after her departure. “Dr. Oz,” starring Winfrey protege Dr. Mehmet Oz, now airs in the 4 p.m. slot that was home for ”Oprah” on WFTV.

Dr. Phil McGraw, another TV star mentored by Winfrey, scored big ratings this week by interviewing George and Cindy Anthony, Casey’s parents. “Dr. Phil” airs at 3 p.m. weekdays on WOFL-Channel 35. McGraw drew more than 125,000 viewers for each part of the Anthony interview Tuesday and Wednesday. When McGraw turned away from the Anthony story on Thursday, his audience fell to 34,100.

McGraw was drawing nearly that many viewers with the Anthony repeats, which WOFL aired the next day at 11 a.m. In that time slot, part one of the Anthony interview drew 30,800 viewers on Wednesday and part two had 26,700 viewers on Thursday.

Casey Anthony was acquitted in July of murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee.

What do you think of Shine’s theory?

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2011/09/casey-anthony-did-oprah-winfreys-exit-spur-interest.html