After winning the ratings race in his first week as moderator of NBC's longstanding Sunday show, "Meet the Press," host Chuck Todd has fallen behind his competitors, coming in third in the Nielsen ratings for the second consecutive week, reports
Variety.
According to Nielsen estimates, the September 21 telecast trailed ABC's "This Week," which led with 3 million total viewers. CBS' "Face the Nation" was a close second with 2.9 million viewers and "Meet the Press" was third with 2.4 million.
"Fox News Sunday" was far behind all of the other shows with 1.2 million.
The ratings seem to indicate that much of the success of Todd's September 7 debut was due to his exclusive interview with President Barack Obama.
In his opening week, "Meet the Press" won among overall viewers, as well as among the coveted 25-34 age group, which marked the first time since February that the show was No. 1 in either category, reported
Politico.
There was some good news for Todd, who continues to serve as NBC News' political director, in that the September 21 show was tops in the ratings in the Washington, DC market, Variety reports.
The show's average of 83,000 total viewers was about the same audience of all of the other Sunday shows combined. It was also dominant among adults 25-54, with its 37,000 viewers.
Todd replaced David Gregory as host following weeks of public speculation about Gregory's future on the program, which had experienced a significant decline in ratings since he took over in December, 2008, after the death of popular host Tim Russert.
Since he assumed the moderator's chair, Todd has made some news of his own.
Jason Zengerle, media critic for the
New Republic, wrote a scathing review of Todd's assertion that the 2014 Senate races were not about Republicans and Democrats, but about "Starbucks Nation" versus "Chick-fil-A Country."
He said that the comparison "strikes me as especially inane."
Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Todd said President Barack Obama was doing almost as much damage to the Democratic Party as former President Jimmy Carter.
"He's on the precipice of doing Jimmy Carter-like damage to the Democratic brand on foreign policy," Todd told host Joe Scarborough.
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