Joobo the King of Wisdom

Live Earth Roundup

Now that Al Gore's collection of ridiculous concerts, staffed by untalented assholes masquerading as musicians, is over, let us check in to the reviews and other news on how the environmental whackos did in "informing" the world about the latest leftist fraud, "climate change."

Reviews: Awful. Audience response: Somewhere below shitty. News: This was really, really bad.

Live Earth ratings on cool side

NEW YORK -- NBC's three-hour Live Earth primetime special, which included highlights from Saturday's global concerts, failed to generate much enthusiasm in the ratings.

The estimated 2.7 million viewers were slightly less than the 3 million NBC would average on a normal Saturday night in the summer with repeats on what already is the least-popular night of television.

It was less successful than what MSN experienced online for Live Earth. MSN said Monday that more than 8 million users streamed 15.4 million videos of Live Earth on MSN live. That's ahead of the 5 million people who watched 2005's Live 8 concert via AOL.

Ratings for individual cable networks weren't available until today, but Nielsen Media Research said Monday that 19 million people tuned in to at least six minutes of the telecasts on NBC, Bravo, Sundance or the other NBC Universal channels that were involved in Sunday's telecast.

NBC's telecast performed below the Live 8 concert two years ago, according to preliminary estimates by Nielsen Media Research.

So, if NBC has aired a test pattern, they would have gotten just about the same ratings. Ouch.

Why Live Earth was a dead loss

There was a moment at Live Earth when I knew for certain it was all going horribly wrong.

There were 70,000 people in Wembley Stadium. The organisers had hoped for a television audience of two billion, to highlight the imminent dangers of global warming. On stage, Tom Chaplin from Keane vainly tried to lead a singalong. Behind him, a big screen boasted "We Called - You Answered", while the numbers who had responded to Live Earth's text message pledge were rolled out. The first line was "3,389 UK responses".

Frankly, my local community signed up more people to protest against a phone mast, and our only celebrity was a voiceover actor for Bob the Builder.

It may be time to call a moratorium on global satellite-linked charity music events. In the past fortnight, we have witnessed two, which for all their good intentions were mediocre entertainment and had questionable results.

Holy fucking shit! Could it get any worse?

Yes, it can.

Ouch x 2.

Live Earth: Dead on arrival

'IF YOU WANT to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down. Come on, mother-[bleepers]!" Madonna railed from the stage at London's Live Earth concert Saturday. "If you want to save the planet, let me see you jump!"

You just can't beat that. What else could capture the canned juvenilia of a 48-year-old centimillionaire — who owns nine homes and has a "carbon footprint" nearly 100 times larger than the norm — hectoring a bunch of well-off, aging hipsters to show their Earth-love by jumping up and down like children? I suppose she could have said, "Now put your right foot in / Take your right foot out / Right foot in / Then you shake it all about…. That's what climate change is all about."

Actually, I think the "Hokey Pokey" makes more sense.

But, hey, I don't want to bash Live Earth, which is not to be confused with Live Aid (1985, dedicated to eradicating African famine) or Live 8 (2005, promising to relieve African nations' debts). So with the African continent so well-fed — and debt free! — who can blame the Celebrity Concern Industry for moving on to its next big success?

The avowed point of Live Earth was to … can you guess? That's right: raise awareness about global warming. Considering the energy required to put on the show, the nine Live Earth concerts doubtlessly raised more CO2 than awareness. NBC's three-hour televised version got trounced by "Cops" and "America's Funniest Home Videos." Moreover, surely most of the people who attended or tuned in already knew about global warming before they saw the video tutorial about Ed Begley Jr.'s eco-friendly home and sanctimony-powered go-cart.

Egads, this is bad news.

Now check this out (no link - sorry), on the overall ratings for this lump of crap:

It was another dull summer Saturday of mixed leadership, with CBS the most-watched network and Fox No. 1 among adults 18-49. The three-hour Live Earth Concert on NBC finished last, with just 2.75 million viewers and a 0.9 rating/3 share among adults 18-49 from 8-11 p.m.

Fox’s double (original and repeat) dose of Cops was first from 8-9 p.m., with an average 4.31 million viewers and a 1.4/ 6 among adults 18-49 from 8-9 p.m. That led into America’s Most Wanted at 4.90 million viewers (#2) and a 1.6/ 6 in the demo at 9 p.m. CBS opened with a repeat of Cold Case (Viewers: #2, 4.00 million; A18-49: #4, 0.7/ 3 at 8 p.m.), followed two hours of 48 Hours Investigates at an average 5.82 million viewers and a 1.4/ 5 among adults 18-49 from 9-11 p.m. If you like scripted forensic crime solving, you should not miss the real thing on 48 Hours Investigates.

Over at ABC, a repeat of Monsters, Inc. averaged 4.70 million viewers and a 1.2/ 4 among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m., followed by a repeat of America’s Funniest Home Videos (Viewers: #2, 3.56 million; A18-49: #2t, 1.1/ 4) at 10 p.m. What a night!

So, in the US, here is how the concert(s) did:

48 Hours Investigates: 4.82 million.
Monsters, Inc.: 4.70 million.
Cops (repeats): 4.31 million.
America's Funniest Home Videos: 3.56 million.
Live Earth: 2.75 million.

When you get beaten by "America's Funniest Home Videos," you might as well close up shop.

But Maybe Al Gore shouldn't feel so bad. After all, he got 2.75 million people to watch his show in one day. That is more than watch Keith Olbermann in an entire week.