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Oprah Soars With Sarah Palin Chat

By Staff

TVNewsCheck, Nov 18 2009, 1:28 PM ET

Oprah Winfrey's interview Monday with former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin delivered The Oprah Winfrey Show its best single-episode ratings in two years.

The CBS Television Distribution talk show hit a Monday's 8.7 rating/13 share weighted meter-market combined average, which includes second runs. It was the highest-rated episode since Nov. 9, 2007, when Oprah had the entire Osmond family on the show

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On a weighted metered-market average basis, the show scored a 7.2 rating/18 share with the Nov. 16 . That's up 36 percent from last year's time period average.

The Palin episode also beat this season's two-part premiere interview with Whitney Houston and last year's post-presidential election night episode.

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Comments (11) - Post a comment

formergm

posted 84 days, 13 hours, 53 minutes ago

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Train wrecks always get great ratings.

PhillyPhlash

posted 84 days, 12 hours, 50 minutes ago

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Would Palin have any staying power as a syndie TV host?

Personally, I thought she'd last as long as the Pet Rock, with which she appears to share some attributes.

But I was wrong. She's still around. Who will be the first to sign her? Harpo, maybe? Oprah's favorite color is green... And, wouldn't that be taking a page from the right-wing playbook? Co-opt the political opposition by hiring it...

Benthere

posted 84 days, 11 hours, 51 minutes ago

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I guess I understand why the GM is former.

Klaatu47

posted 84 days, 11 hours, 50 minutes ago

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Oprah is to much of a lefty to give a platform to a right-wing-nut like Palin. but somebody will.

Nashgrl

posted 84 days, 11 hours, 36 minutes ago

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Sarah Palin should have never given the Oprah show the satisfaction of great ratings! The only reason O got the ratings she did, was because Sarah has a mass audience of followers. The great ratings, obviously, show that Sarah Palin is truly admired by many, many people! It's definitely not because Oprah is so great!@ Go Sarah!!!!

David Sams posted 84 days, 11 hours, 34 minutes ago

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Palin would be a solid 3 rating in syndication, without a doubt--as long as her distributor and the stations let her do her own thing. That's the ticket. She would have to have total editorial control over the program. If there is a hangup to getting this done, that is it. Face it, she was a puppet once--she's not going to allow that to happen again. If a distributor steps up and allows her to do her own thing, she'll be the hottest ticket in town.

David Sams
davidsams.net (join me on LinkedIn)

RustbeltAlumnus2

posted 84 days, 11 hours, 30 minutes ago

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keep your friends close and your enemies closer

seriously, I agree that Oprah's usual audience tends away from the far-right, so the new tune-ins wanted to see Palin, not Oprah. I thought both did a good job, which is more that I can say for the slanted reaction stories that came after the show, or worse, the CNN fact-checking. CNN never fact-checks the WH, just its opponents.

PhillyPhlash

posted 84 days, 11 hours, 25 minutes ago

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Wanna bet Palin shows up on Letterman after the first media wave post-book subsides? All she has to do is ask him, "I hear you have a great internship program here," or, "I'd love a studio tour, upstairs and downstairs," and she'd kill... but I bet Dave would be ready for anything. Talk about a grudge match. Sarah, do you have it in you to go into the belly of the beast? I hope so. Will be great TV...

PSIPthing

posted 84 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes ago

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isn't the equation here that none of the people interested in Palin are regular Oprah watchers? I sincerely doubt that she will appear on Letterman; he's begged her previously, and said he had done so repeatedly on air. This isn't like his spat with Madonna.

heyyyynow

posted 84 days, 6 hours, 28 minutes ago

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um hello the first requirement of a *talk* show host is the ability to TALK.

tvmike

posted 84 days, 5 hours, 10 minutes ago

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It's amazing that Palin is given this much air time. As a voter who has consistently voted Republican, Palin was the reason I voted for Obama. This anti-Palin vote was painful but the thought of her as President was more painful. I am baffled by those who blame the media for her gaffes. Its not the questions being asked but her inability to answer a question without getting totally defensive and rattled. As George Will said last week, she is a distraction in a year where there is no elections and she will absolutely not be the leading candidate of the Republican party in 2012. I hope he is right

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