Tuned In

Fey Accompli: Most of Her Viewers Skipped Palin's Debate

  • Share
  • Read Later

Media-research group Integrated Media Management Inc., which tracks viewership of media on TV and mobile devices, sent a study on the audience for Tina Fey’s impressions of Sarah Palin. First, the TV-wonk news, which contends that most of the audience did not watch the skits on live TV:

Among all the people who saw at least one of the three SNL sketches, 33 percent watched it on television during the original broadcast and a staggering 67 percent watched after the original broadcast either online or on a DVR.

But this nugget was even more interesting:

As an interesting side-note, SNL’s version of the vice-presidential debate was as close as many viewers came to watching the real thing. Of the viewers who watched at least one of the SNL sketches, 56 percent never saw the actual vice-presidential debate.

Emphasis mine. Also: !!! [Strikes forehead with heel of hand.]

I don’t know the margin of error in IMMI’s study, so take it with as much salt as you like, but this does go to the notion that Fey is shaping Palin’s public image as much as Palin is.