Live Earth dead
The good news for Al Gore is that his Live Earth concert highlights show on NBC, designed to raise public awareness about global warming, attracted some 19 million viewers at one point or another Saturday night, according to Nielsen ratings released late yesterday.
The bad news is that more than 16 million of those folks switched away from the three-hour concert that consumed the network's prime time Saturday evening. Many, perhaps disappointed that Gore did not announce his candidacy for president, were no doubt out back gathered around smoking grills helping to further warm the earth's atmosphere.
This left NBC with about 2.7 million viewers to earn fourth place for the night behind ABC with 3.4 million, Fox with 4.6 million and CBS with 5.2 million. Times columnist Jonah Goldberg has a different take on the concert here.
In Britain, the BBC reported 3.1 million watched the show, which was less than a third of the 11.4 million audience for the Princess Diana concert two weeks ago. Of those 3.1 million, 123 rang up the BBC to complain about foul language during the concert. Madonna, among others, felt compelled to use the mf word.
Perhaps what we really need next is a live global concert to raise awareness about the omnipresence of live global concerts trying to raise awarenesses.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo: Al Gore and Cameron Diaz; Credit: Justin Lane/EPA
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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AL WHO???? HA!!! "Gore- Stock"....a delightful failure of another "chicken little." Now maybe Big Al will go to China and India and work on real air polluiton issues. Ooops, is that politically correct to mention this? Or maybe he will evaluate and get the likes of Michael "Sicko" Moore to help him. Now that would be 2 peas in a pod!
Posted by: Bruce | July 11, 2007 at 06:39 AM
Why so vicious, Bruce?
ref: AL WHO???? HA!!! "Gore- Stock"....
Posted by: Bruce | July 11, 2007 at 06:39 AM
I fear we've all been so politicized and polarized that reality doesn't have a chance. IF nothing is done, then we will surely be someday damned by our children.
I don't know the answers; I acknowledge I'm no expert BUT I do know that the truth is not uncovered by partisan bickering, zealotry and intransigence. Are we so spoiled by our historic good fortune that we'll squander it all just to stroke ourselves?
I hope not; I fear so though.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen | July 11, 2007 at 02:25 PM
Live Earth is not about Al Gore; it is about the possibility of a sustainable planet that will survive the human species. With that said, the Live Earth Concert was not a solely TV event it was multimedia, the internet being the best way to respond and be interactive. It was not a failure for Al Gore, but for the tv networks themselves because they are not interactive "live wire". The internet on the other hand you connect to a smart 55 inch and you can dial in and make a pledge and control how you see the concert.
Basically it was a "technical difficulties" for the networks who fell off the wave for this event.
Live Earth was a total smash, that obliterated the networks, cable tv included.
That is what "Going Green" means, accesibility and participation for everyone in addition to saving the planet and hence ourselves.
Migdalia a teacher from Tampa, Florida
Posted by: Migdalia Mojica | July 12, 2007 at 08:10 AM
The first place to point fingers is at yourself.
No matter what is happening on the other side of the world we are all effected. Let's show the others the way.
There was 19 million people that took the time to look and listen.
Perhaps the 13.2 million decided that they were going to make changes in their lives and started by changing the light bulbs before changing the channel.
We can always Hope!
Posted by: Jim | July 12, 2007 at 10:22 PM