CNN Envirohype Special Gets Panned by Viewers

If you are even an occasional viewer of CNN, chances are you have not been able to escape a commercial for the channel's "Planet in Peril" two-hour homage to environmental alarmism.

Despite the huge hype, however, CNN's regular audience seems to have tuned out the special. It was a ratings dud:

It's not just the "Planet in Peril." The ratings for CNN's two-hour environmental special last week were also in crisis.

The second installment of the series landed in third place in the adults 25-54 demographic and fourth place in viewers for its 9 p.m.-11 p.m. Thursday premiere, Nielsen Media Research said.

That is despite strong ratings for the original four-hour series "Planet in Peril," in October 2007, as well as reported pieces by Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Lisa Ling, plus a heavy round of marketing this time around.

"Planet in Peril" averaged 426,000 viewers in the demo to Fox News Channel's 595,000 and Headline News' 490,000. "Peril" was only able to best MSNBC's 380,000 in the demo. But it fell to fourth place with 1 million viewers to Fox News Channel's 2.7 million, MSNBC's 1.1 million and Headline News's 1 million.

Via Michael Calderone.