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Jake Tapper Wins This Week Ratings ‘Audition’

by Tommy Christopher | 9:13 am, January 10th, 2010

» 2 comments

The past two weeks have provided an opportunity to compare the performance of a pair of leading candidates to succeed George Stephanopoulos as the host of ABC’s This Week. By one measure, at least, White House correspondent Jake Tapper has emerged with an advantage over Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran, drawing 60,000 more viewers. That might seem slim, but a closer look at the numbers indicates that ABC might want to consider moving in Tapper’s direction.

Here are the numbers: (Source: Nielsen Media Research via ABC News Media Relations)

While 60k might not seem like a huge difference, it’s worth noting that 83% of Tapper’s lead is in the all-important 25-54 demographic. Additionally, Jake outperformed Moran while drawing from a smaller total audience, and cut into Meet the Press’ lead in the demographic by 150,000 more viewers than Moran did.

There are other factors that affect viewership, of course, but I think these trends are indicative of Jake Tapper’s appeal to the younger demographic, and likely the result of his ability to leverage new media.

Either candidate would be an excellent choice (as would Ted Koppel), but Tapper seems uniquely positioned to tap (sorry) into that Twitter-era audience that advertisers find so attractive.

ABC News, Jake Tapper, Robert Gibbs, Ted Koppel, Terry Moran, This Week, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, this week with jake tapper, Tommy Christopher

Fidoohki

I watched him and I wasn’t too impressed. Maybe it was jitters though I do give him credit for being hard on both sides in the debates.
GORD2000

If Jake doesn’t get This Week and ABC goes for a strong voice from the past (such as Ted), they are making a big mistake. The flipside is that Jake could probably end up as a permanent host of a Hardball-type of cable show or a syndicated Sunday morning show.