Skeptical of Performers’ Motives, Public Tunes Out Live Earth Event

Sunday, July 08, 2007

The Live Earth concert promoted by former Vice President Al Gore received plenty of media coverage and hype, but most Americans tuned out. Just 22% said they followed news stories about the concert Somewhat or Very Closely. Seventy-five percent (75%) did not follow coverage of the event.

By way of comparison, eight-in-ten voters routinely said they were following news coverage of the recent Senate debate over immigration. Fifty-four percent (54%) said they followed news coverage of the President’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence.

Skepticism about the participants may have been a factor in creating this low level of interest. Most Americans (52%) believe the performers take part in such events because it is good for their image. Only 24% say the celebrities really believe in the cause while another 24% are not sure. One rock star who apparently shared that view is Matt Bellamy of the band Muse. Earlier in the week, he jokingly referred to Live Earth as "private jets for climate change."

Slightly under half (46%) believe that Global Warming is caused primarily by human activities. A roughly equal number believe warming is either the result of long-term planetary trends (35%) of some other cause (8%). Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com

NBC, which aired LiveEarth, came in 4th place in ratings:

On Saturday, CBS' 3.8/8 was good enough to win the night. FOX, 3.0/6, came in second, followed by ABC, 2.1/4, and NBC, 1.8/4.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/ratings/zap...ings-headlines


Live Earth branded a foul-mouthed flop


Peak performance: Madonna takes her turn at Wembley
Live Earth has been branded a foul-mouthed flop.

Organisers of the global music concert - punctuated by swearing from presenters and performers - had predicted massive viewing figures.


But BBC's live afternoon television coverage attracted an average British audience of just 900,000.


In the evening, when coverage switched from BBC2 to BBC1, the figure rose to just 2.7 million.


And the peak audience, which came when Madonna sang at Wembley, was a dismal 4.5 million. Three times as many viewers saw the Princess Diana tribute on the same channel six days before.


Two years ago, Live 8 drew a peak television audience of 9.6million while Live Aid notched 10million in 1985...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770