Blackfish wins.  Not just best show, but most popular topic for the day.

Come on, CNN, why not just run the damn thing 24/7?.  You’ll save a lot of money.  It’s not like you’re planning on staying a news organization much longer.  You’ve turned Headline News into HLN, which I assume is short for Harpy Legal News.  You’re not sure whether you want to free your fish with Blackfish or fry them up with Bourdain.  And, apparently, the only news worth covering is either outrage or disaster.  My god, you lost Ali Veshi to Al Jazeera!  Al Jazeera! What’s next? Fareed Zakaria moves over to Comedy Central? (To be fair to Comedy Central, they do cover the news with more depth, so this could be a great idea).

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Between having a notorious tweet last week and having Twitter founder Biz Stone on Monday, it’s no surprise that The Colbert Report had the best engagement during its broadcast of any cable news show yesterday.

Apart from Colbert, the Rachel Maddow Show did surprisingly well compared to the normal levels of engagement it receives.

Michael Smerconish’s debut on CNN didn’t generate huge Twitter engagement, but given how poorly the show is promoted, I guess that’s not surprising.  What I don’t understand is how cable networks, with huge operating budgets, can fail to do the simple things like build a landing page for a show (even if it’s only on for a week) and not promote the show in social media (no hashtags, now show accounts, no thing).  It’s just so sloppy. And CNN wonders why they are lagging in the ratings (absent a missing plane): it’s because they don’t do the foundational work necessary to be successful.  

Sharpen your saws, CNN.

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