Politico’s Mackenzie Weinger profiles liberal radio host and Current TV talent Bill Press.
And now that he’s on Current TV, even with its small share of viewers, Press said he sees an opportunity for his brand to really flourish.
Current TV’s executive vice president of programming Shelley Lewis said Press “was one of the first people we thought of when we were ready to expand our programming line up.”“The fact that he gave us a high-profile presence in Washington was a factor. But there are lots of people doing radio or TV shows in Washington,” Lewis said. “Bill is a standout — he’s so smart, so connected, so passionately progressive and so much fun to listen to and watch.”
Advertisement
One of the big challenges facing Press (and Current TV) is that the liberal networks has failed to attract any sort of meaningful viewership since the departure of Keith Olbermann.
According to data from Nielsen Media Research for the week of November 12, Press earned 45,000 viewers on his most-watched day of the week. Every other program that week drew around 25,000 viewers, below Nielsen’s accuracy threshold. In other words, so low that Nielsen says it can not accurately track the ratings.
Press may still have influence in Washington, but he has a long way to do before he makes a dent on a national scale.