Larry King Oil Spill Telethon Comes in Fourth

The Wrap

Despite its best intentions — and the $1.8 million it raised — CNN’s two-hour star-studded (Justin Bieber!) Larry King-hosted telethon benefiting Gulf oil spill victims failed to draw the audience producers might have hoped for.

According to figures released by Nielsen, the 8:00 p.m. (ET) hour of the telethon drew about 547,000 total viewers, placing it in fourth behind Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor” (2.74 million), MSNBC’s “Countdown” (1.01 million) and Nancy Grace (787,000). The telecast averaged about 153,000 25-to-54-year-old viewers during the first hour, also fourth among its cable competitors. More…