The entertainment media is doing the best they can to spin the paltry ratings for the debut of “The Pacific.” But 3.1 million viewers compared to the 10 million for the premiere of “Band of Brothers” is pretty difficult to spin. Yes, Nielsen has changed the way they count HBO viewers since “Brothers” debuted in 2001. They once counted all HBO channels and now count them individually (are we to believe millions and millions were watching HBO Thriller in 2001? ). Still, according to Reuters, that ten million was considered a slow start for “Brothers” and 3.1 million for “The Pacific” represents a mere 69% increase over normal HBO programming in that same time period. For additional context we’re also told “The Pacific” did manage to beat the debut of “John Adams” by 22%.
Okay, fine, but let’s look a little closer at the real context, which is always found near the bottom of anything written by the MSM. On Sunday nights, the series “True Blood” averages 5 million viewers. “Blood” might air in a different time-slot than “The Pacific” but how fine do we want to split these hairs? Most telling is that when the History Channel aired a re-broadcast of “Band of Brothers” in 2004, 4.6 million tuned in. This bears repeating…
A rerun of “Brothers” delivered 1.5 million more viewers than the heavily promoted debut of “The Pacific.”
HBO has over 30 million subscribers and it’s just a fact that Sunday night less than 10% bothered to watch “The Pacific,” even with the dual pedigree of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks combined with a very, very heavy promotional blitz and a lingering universal affection for “Band of Brothers.”
So what changed?
No doubt, there are all kinds of factors and to lay the blame completely at the feet of Tom Hanks’ ignorant and offensive comments would be impossible to prove and therefore unfair. However, it’s doubtful anyone wants to debate that having the high-profile face of Hanks — the face of the publicity blitz — defame our country and the troops who fought WWII and today’s War on Terror was at all helpful.
For the most part the MSM tried to spike the story through their normal sin of omission (ignoring news that doesn’t further the Leftist cause). Unfortunately for Hanks, the days of the MSM completely controlling the narrative are over. The inter-web-nets were and are all over this story, Fox News picked it up and though my work gets in the way of talk radio listening, I’m assuming it got some attention there as well.
And what was Hanks’ biggest mistake? Well, his arrogance and the bubble of his A-list life allowed him to forget the world’s changed and that the MSM can no longer make all the bad right-wingers go away; he stepped right into the ongoing and growing narrative of the anti-American, anti-troop Hollywood leftie and then found himself subjected to something completely new in the world of the stah — what the rest of us call Being Held Accountable For What We Say.
Bottom line: This was the very worst publicity the Oscar-winner could have given his miniseries at the very worst possible time.
Certainly, the $200 million HBO production could still rebound, pick up viewers as it rolls on and sell well on DVD. There’s still a lot of life there, and the merits of “The Pacific” should stand apart from the glib hostility one of its creators let slip in what he must have felt was the safe and cuddly environment of MSNBC.
Like all Americans, Tom Hanks has every right to defame our country and warriors in whatever forum he wishes. No one’s arguing that. What the actor might want to consider, though, is keeping up with the times. The days of lobbing political bombs while cowering behind your publicist and then counting on the butt-boy Leftist media to memory-hole anything that might hurt your product are over.
The disappointing debut of “The Pacific” might have nothing to do with the words of “Our Jimmy Stewart.” However, because his indefensible comments received the kind of thorough airing in our national conversation they would not have just a couple years ago, that possibility is now lingering in the minds of every individual who invested their time, talent and millions into what must have looked like a slam-dunk just a few minutes before Mr. Hanks took a chair with Morning Joe.
The Only Jimmy Stewart
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