Who’s Up, Who’s Down: This Week in Power Grid Upsets

Eliot Spitzer was boosted to #5 among TV Pundits by some good publicity and some not-so-good publicity. As we wrote earlier this week, “He’s been in the spotlight for his vocal critiques of the financial system and because of the rumors that he’s thinking about reentering politics. But in a perverse way, it also helps that his former call girl Ashley Dupre is releasing pop songs and getting the New York Post to follow her every move. Every time she comes up, he comes up.”

People‘s Larry Hackett just can’t get a break. Despite impressive print figures and the second-most online unique visitors of any magazine on the Power Grid, he slid from #13 to #19 this past week. His magazine covers celebrities, but he has remained defiantly low-profile in an era of editors-cum-celebs who hawk books, make the rounds on cable news, and spend a lot of time on their restaurants.

Ann Coulter‘s fall on the Grid this past week weirdly parallels Glenn Beck‘s rise. As Beck climbed from #10 to #3 among TV Anchors/Hosts thanks to ever-stronger ratings and endless buzz, Coulter fell from #3 to #11 among TV Pundits. Why? Not all that much airtime. Despite her healthcare commentary and her attempts to spin Joe Wilson as a “great American statesman,” she didn’t meaningfully inject herself in the debate. Maybe the public consciousness only has room for one theatrical right-winger at a time.

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