The folks at ABC’s “Nightline” thought Friday’s telecast with the names of Americans killed in Iraq would be a ratings loser — and the opposite turned out to be true.
The broadcast had a 4.4 household rating in the nation’s largest media markets, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Although numbers for the entire country won’t be available until later this week, that preliminary measurement was up 22 percent from the previous Friday and was 29 percent more than other “Nightline” telecasts last week.
On Friday, “Nightline” anchorman Ted Koppel read the names of 721 American soldiers killed during the war. One large media chain, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, refused to air Friday’s “Nightline” on the seven ABC stations it owns.
A ratings point represents 1,084,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 108.4 million TV homes.
Tom Bettag, senior executive producer of “Nightline,” said he believed the 40-minute recitation of names would be a ratings turnoff.
The ratings increase held little real value for ABC, however, since no advertisements ran during the broadcast and it will not be included in the averages used to set future ad rates.
“If it got ratings, it was only for curiosity,” he said.
More lists to comeMeanwhile, the controversy fueled by Sinclair is bound to continue. “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace — who worked for ABC News and occasionally anchored “Nightline” until jumping to Fox late last year — said his show is preparing its own list for broadcast this weekend.
“We think the folks at ‘Nightline’ made a mistake this week, listing all the brave men and women who have died in Iraq, but without providing a context of what they went halfway around the world to do,” Wallace said.
ABC made a mistake listing all the men and women who died without providing a context of what they were in Iraq to do, Wallace said.
Fox is preparing a “list of what we’ve accomplished in Iraq through the blood, sweat and, yes, lives of our military,” he said. It will be aired this Sunday.
He did not say specifically what Fox would be listing. A Fox News spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Bettag said Wallace is “a good newsman” who is entitled to his opinion. Since they wish people had withheld judgment about the “Nightline” broadcast until actually seeing it, both Bettag and Koppel wouldn’t comment Tuesday on Wallace’s plans.
Last Friday’s “Nightline” was a result of many e-mails from viewers who said they wanted to see the names and faces behind the almost daily reports of soldiers being killed in Iraq, Bettag said.
“It wasn’t a stunt,” he said. “It was a natural outgrowth of what we have been doing.”
Despite Wallace’s criticism, “Nightline” received support Tuesday from Fox News Channel’s best-known personality. Bill O’Reilly said Koppel displayed neutrality and he took ABC’s word that it was a tribute.
“There is no anti-war record on ‘Nightline’s’ rap sheet,” O’Reilly wrote in a column that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. “Koppel reported the war straight when he was embedded with invading U.S. troops last spring.”