HLN rides Casey Anthony trial to best ratings month ever in June
I have to admit. I have spent virtually no time on the Casey Anthony trial. I’m not even sure why this is getting so much attention compared to many other criminal trials but it clearly has appeal among a subset of women viewers, especially fans of Nancy Grace.
Atlanta-based HLN has been taking full advantage of the trial, providing expansive coverage during the day and into the evening hours.
The windfall: big ratings, relatively speaking. Viewership began climbing once the trial began in late May. Its June ratings were its strongest ever in total viewers, behind only Fox News and ahead of sister station CNN and MSNBC. During the day, it averaged 601,000 viewers vs. 303,000 in June, 2010. In primetime, it averaged 982,000 viewers vs. 592,000 in June, 2010.
Nancy Grace, who contemptuously calls Anthony “tot mom,” pulled in a record 1.5 million viewers per night in June, 80 percent more than a year earlier.
On Wednesday, when the defense called its final witnesses, HLN beat all cable news networks among 25 to 54 year olds full day and primetime. It averaged 357,000 all day 25-54, its best numbers in that demo since it moved to long-form programming in 2005. Nancy Grace pulled in 676,000 viewers among 25 to 54 year olds, the most since January 7, 2009, another day in which she discussed the case.
The numbers today will likely be even bigger, given that the verdict was announced. (Anthony was not guilty of the main first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter charges. “Tot mom’s lies seem to have worked,” Grace said.)
I am working on a weekly print column about HLN’s coverage and will provide more information later this week.
Join my Facebook fan page and Twitter.
By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog
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251 comments Add your comment
T.C
July 5th, 2011
4:10 pm
You reap what you sow,so im sure her(casey)and the jurors will pay for what they have done in time.
Rollo Tomasi
July 5th, 2011
4:10 pm
It’s a pretty good bet that if there were no death penalty she would have been found guilty. In science, an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence – belief, intuition and faith don’t count. Nancy Grace and friends believed in her guilt as did I, but WE didn’t have to make a decision that would have resulted in Cayce’s execution. Faced with the responsibility of that, even an UNreasonable doubt would carry some weight.
Execution is legalized revenge – if you want to punish someone, put them in a little box for the rest of their lives.
Jared
July 5th, 2011
4:11 pm
The one thing that stuck out to me was how George found the smell in the car but did not call police. I don’t think she was smart enough to cover up the evidence as well as it was. Maybe they need to look at who would have had the know how to distorte and tidy things up so that no prints etc were found.
siteunseen
July 5th, 2011
4:13 pm
Well Psychopathic Murder-Mom gets set free, because….there were no witnesses???? All hear-say??? The Jury obviously thought the Dad did help Casey cover-up, but dumping the body in the woods so animals could drag off remains? Odd verdict. Wonder who drugged the Jury, or maybe they all have hexes on them from Casey’s Cult friends, so they don’t know what drove them to make this verdict. The Witch is FREE.
hrtattkjck
July 5th, 2011
4:13 pm
The press vilified and tried this woman in the press Nancy Grace spent what 6 months night after night convicting her. The press and Nancy Grace are purveyors of the worst kind of porn that would make Larry Flynt look like Dr. Seuss by comparison. Night after night indulging the self righteous into a frenzy. While this case is truly sad from all angles it fed the diseased mind of these people who have to sit around and judge someone with such contempt it makes them feel better about themselves.
Nancy Grace was giddy about the prospect of her conviction which makes her sicker than Casey could have ever been. Anyone who takes joy in the misery of others is truly a sick mind.
Personally I do not know if she was guilty or not but the jury heard the evidence and found her not guilty and that is the system we have.
disgusted
July 5th, 2011
4:15 pm
Egg on faces? This is more about an innocent little girl who had duct tape placed over her breathing parts and placed in the woods. Someone did that!!! I just dont get the outcome, somehow her baby came up missing, first she lied and said the nanny stole her, then that lie lost its power when they found out there was no nanny, so she told a new lie, she drowned in the pool and she didnt know what to do so she entered a best body contest and partied the next 30 days ago while telling her parents that Casey was with her while she traveled around the state vising friends… whatever… the only person with egg on her face is Casey, and that will never come off.
siteunseen
July 5th, 2011
4:15 pm
BTW: Now you know why there has to be a final judgment at the end of the world. Here’s a perfect example.
JuJu
July 5th, 2011
4:15 pm
Who cares about the ratings….. SHE GOT AWAY WITH MURDER!!! No if ands buts about it. What kind of mother would go 31 days without reporting there child missing??? I wouldn’t go 31 minutes much less go out parting Come on people! She is sick. What kind of message does this send to young single mothers?? I’m shocked and sick about this. Poor baby Caylee. BTW..Is she going to go home and live with her parents now and where was Lee today?
Maria
July 5th, 2011
4:16 pm
This, like the OJ trial is about race, not justice, and finding someone not guilty because they like the attorney is sick. Jose Biez was and will always be STUPID. For the jurors to go with the defence because they are racialy motivated is sick.
W
July 5th, 2011
4:17 pm
Myna, that is a good question, but I don’t think a child advocacy group can bring civil charges against a mother/father… typically they assist with making criminal cases stronger on behalf of the child. Usually this is done based on investigations of abuse, neglect, endangerment, etc. which are criminal matters.
Bigboy
July 5th, 2011
4:17 pm
Anthony should sue Nancy Grace and CNN for a billion dollars.Maybe then they will take all the crappy “legal” shows off the air.I agree with her lawyer…somebody needs to stick it to them too.OJ made CNN.
Bigboy
July 5th, 2011
4:19 pm
I think they found OJ not guilty because that had to be the weakest murder case ever brought to trail.The Anthony case wasn’t far behind.
Ed
July 5th, 2011
4:19 pm
Now it seems she Casey was judged by a “jury of her peers”. She is a convicted felon and sounds like most of the jury was also. Birds of a feather………….
Don
July 5th, 2011
4:21 pm
I know that a lie detector test is not admissiable in court but did anyone give Casey the test?
j wow
July 5th, 2011
4:21 pm
um, so a senate seat gets you a retrial but killing your kid, lying about it, gets you freetime?
mdw
July 5th, 2011
4:22 pm
regardless of what you think about the verdict I am glad to see that even through the American media can put a President in office – they still don’t have the power to convict someone in our justice system!!!!!
ben
July 5th, 2011
4:22 pm
APPALLED!!! 4 u Rodney Ho ur an IDIOT ..its getting so much attention bcuz people r looking for justice i am not a fan of nancy’s or anyone else i think people who r fans of other people have low selfesteem of themselves were all the same a little baby girl was MURDERED….you wont feel it till someone in ur family is killed or even UR child…Casey was the last one with her daughter LIED over & over alot of the FACTS were kept from the jury…this is why they need professional juries…instead of picking what side likes who tying to give them the benefit of the doubt….this is nothing but a injustice to little Caylee .You’ll neverhear me say “liberty and justice for all again. everything about a persons history should be admissable in court just because its not in this case. Sorry for calling you an idiot but i’m so angry forgive me i dont even know you.
Mrs Lane
July 5th, 2011
4:23 pm
I have followed this case from day one and am totally shocked at the outcome. She is so guilty. I have been a juror on cases before and this outcome is so shocking. All the evidence was there for a guilty verdict. If not guilty then who did this?
Maria
July 5th, 2011
4:23 pm
Let that murder out so the citizens can take care of her and lets do the same to the sick jurors.
siteunseen
July 5th, 2011
4:24 pm
I hope a private investigator follows her, and taps her phone conversations from now to eternity. Someday…she’ll trip up, in fact, if you question her about details in 10 years, everything will change. This happened in a murder case where a woman and man were found no guilty of the murder of her husband. They made it look like her husband was killed by an intruder in the house, when it was her boyfriend (lover) who killed him, and she called police saying someone broke in her house and killed her husband. His face was smashed beyond recognition. Police came to her home 20 years later, yes…20 years later, and asked her for details about the death of her husband…her story was completely different, because she forgot the lies she had told. They told her what she had previously said…and asked her if she were guilty…she did admit it, and then said her boyfriend did it. She was finally convicted after 20 years. Amazing case, but can’t remember the names.
Don
July 5th, 2011
4:24 pm
When Anthony starts to rake in the cash from books,appearing on tv etc. You can be proud that YOU made her case famous!!! There are hundreds of children killed each year and never get more than a spot on the news channel. Nancy should ask for a cut of Anthony’s up coming fortune.
Randall
July 5th, 2011
4:24 pm
Nancy Grace should be on trial. In fact the whole media should be on trial here. Why do they convict people before they are even tried? Usually the media starts saying someone is guilty before they are even charged! I give you Scott Peterson, OJ, the cop that supposedly killed his 3rd wife, and now Casey Anthony.
It has nothing to do with whether they are guilty or innocent. It is about the role of the press. I want them to report the facts. I do not want them reporting leaked information for the police or the prosecution. After a trial there is plenty of time to rehash what has happened. Think about this, What if you were accused of a crime and before you are charged or arrested, the press is saying, non stop, that you are guilty. The national news picks it up, Nancy Grace decides you should be flayed alive. How do you fight that? What if you didn’t do it? How is that fair? That is NOT how our system is supposed to work. I have heard over and over that the media the the “thirteenth juror”. Um, no they are not. It’s is about ratings and money. Othewise, why is this tiral of interest to anyone outside of the town she lived in? It does not effect my life at all. Why is this part of our national dialog at all?
This has got to stop.
watt
July 5th, 2011
4:24 pm
INNOCENT………….until proven guilty!!!! There is no proof!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
pam
July 5th, 2011
4:25 pm
there’s no justice in our courts. i will never follow another case of HLN ever again!!!
Hellina
July 5th, 2011
4:27 pm
This trial open the door for may criminal. I can see any body can do what ever and just be good layer that’s what she did. There is no justice in this country. from now on my mind is change no one shows to any body when he kill someone that means there is no evidence.
Bigboy
July 5th, 2011
4:28 pm
Well said Randall
GT4EVER
July 5th, 2011
4:30 pm
Hellina shouldn’t you be in summer school or something?
Bobbie
July 5th, 2011
4:31 pm
Nakiah Green 12 years old has more sense than the 12 adults on that jury. Did they want to go home that badly that they let a murderer go free in less than two days? Let’s not forget the true victim in all of this; an innocent baby named Caylee Marie. I’m so sorry sweetie, that our society and so called “justice” system says it’s okay for mothers to kill and toss their children like garbage. Rest in peace sweet baby. Justice will be served one way or another someday and by a higher authority. A mother who does not report her child missing for 31 days after claiming she was with a babysitter that never existed, and then tells lie after lie after lie, goes shopping, partying, tatooing and sleeping with your boyfried like nothing ever happened if she’s innocent. Casey Anthony is a cold blooded, calculating, lying, murdering monster. Lady Justice in all her blindness can see that.
KATE
July 5th, 2011
4:31 pm
Casey Anthony was tried and convicted by the media. The media has never had it so good. They should be paying the court costs they have made so much money from their “trial” of Anthony. In spite of the work of lawyers, judge and jury, the ever yapping “court” of public opinion has been entirely sucked in by the media hype and is now howling their displeasure at the verdict…. no doubt prepared to lynch her. SHE WAS FOUND INNOCENT PEOPLE. GET OVER YOURSELVES. Either we have courts, lawyers and juries or we do not. Where do you think you are? Salem witch trials?
GT4EVER
July 5th, 2011
4:32 pm
Well Bobbie maybe she was a bad mother it doesn’t make her a murderer.
angela burton
July 5th, 2011
4:34 pm
we have the worst justice system..she will get rich off this, party and live her life. i cold murderer and not just a murderer but you killed your own innocent child…wow i hate the usa…i hope that bitch rots in hell…shame on that jury..would they allow her to hang out with there kids? hell no!!!! dumb mofo~
GT4EVER
July 5th, 2011
4:35 pm
Millions of “innocent babies “starve to death every year worldwide…nobody seems to care about that.Yet we become obsessed with one child who died 3 years ago?
Jeanie
July 5th, 2011
4:36 pm
maybe Casey can get a job as a live in nanny for the children of her attorneys
Ed
July 5th, 2011
4:37 pm
I don’t understand why the jury did not find her guilty. Unlike the OJ trial, had he been found guilty LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas and other larger cities would probably have been set on fire.
angela burton
July 5th, 2011
4:37 pm
gt4ever…starving to death and murder is so far fetched..wtf are you thinking…what if it was your grand child? wtf
Hope
July 5th, 2011
4:38 pm
HA HA to NANCY GRACE and all the stone THROWERS…ENJOY your HUMBLE PIE!!!! EAT CROW!!!!
GT4EVER
July 5th, 2011
4:41 pm
I’m sorry mdw but who in the hell actually thought McCain and Sarah Palin would get elected.”Putin peeking his head up across the border”?Dude please!
jackie
July 5th, 2011
4:41 pm
Ed, I believe you have a good point. They started calling her Tot Mom because Caylee was a todler,also the names were so close and some people just were getting confused when hearing it over and over. RIP SWEET BABY CAYLEE!
laura
July 5th, 2011
4:42 pm
One thing that many people dont understand is the burden of proof that has to be beyond reasonable doubt…there was no definite proof of how Kayleigh died. That is the question among all others that was never answered….I knew it would be NOT GUILTY…Proof that the criminal justice system does work!!!! Opinions dont matter…everyone has one!!!!
angela burton
July 5th, 2011
4:42 pm
who would allow there child to be deceased for 31 days and not say anything?…hmmmmm maybe a murderer? wow people are so messed up..wtf…whats the deal with retarded ass jurors…this is so up setting…judicial system is f’d up..look at how the juvenile system is f’d up….i know a kid that 14 that stole cars, robbed people and car jacked people and the mom spanked him and they put her in jail and hes still out here robbing people. what a crock of bull…
GT4EVER
July 5th, 2011
4:44 pm
Well Angela first of all…how do you know the child was murdered?Because Nancy Grace said so?Secondly she was found not guilty 12-0…what makes you think you know more than the jurors assigned to the case?Because Nancy said so?
j wow
July 5th, 2011
4:44 pm
it’s not so much about race but looks or money. If people think you’re hot, they’re willing to believe anything to explain away bad things (just human psychology). Also, I guess this is what happens when you make people endure trials (the jury), on the 4th of July. I just found it odd before the disgusting verdict, that we’re in America, and on a day when the garbage man and the mailman get off, for a FEDERAL AMERICAN GOVERNMENT holiday, um, our JUDICIAL SYSTEM is still in session? That was just odd to me. But, ok. I think that the verdict would have at least been given more thought (I mean, guilty of SOMETHING, geesh), had they not been held hostage in a (no t.v., no media, no talking with friends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, girlfriends, children, etc while you KNOW everyone else like, LITERALLY in the ENTIRE country is out, off, grilling, and having a REALLY fun day, and you’re stuck inside. It’s like psychological torture–even though it’s not that bad, it feels it. Like when you’re a kid and you’re on punishment–not going outside and talking to your friends isn’t as big a deal as when you’re NOT allowed or NOT able to, as opposed to having a choice or option. Kinda like the theory behind Chinese water torture–leaky faucets are annoying but only drive you crazy when you’re FORCED to be around them and CAN’T turn them off…etc.
I’m just searching for straws. But like someone else already said…innocent people are excecuted, put in prison, mistaken identities, cover ups, etc’s but the bad folk walk. That’s just LIFE. It’s not exclusive to this country. When you’re read the Word of God in the King James Version of the Holy Bible, you can find out that Satan RUNS IT down here, and that the power given to him, God gave him (but for a season only). But point–Satan’s folk are the power players on Earth right now, so this is how they run it. Not saying anything about the Casey Anthony, just saying that Disney and Karma don’t work–the good suffer in real life more than the evil–not the other way around. And bad women don’t look like monsters always, like Disney and in differing philosophies.
But, oh well. Move on, the anger for this, we can’t do squat about it. Pray for ALL of the parties involved if you’re a Christian (you’re SUPPOSED TO), and JUST KNOW, their are PLENTY of things that we CAN do something about, injustices that we CAN help right–like at the least praying for and helping out those who are being tortured in other countries for being “different” or for scaring their goverment, or to be made examples out of. The Holocaust was not the only holocaust, and slavery didn’t end 200 years ago. People are bought and sold and enslaved LITERALLY in our country, and abroad. And Middle Eastern countries aren’t the only places where human life is slaughtered by monsters in power, and psychotic masses and gorrilla forces.
David potter
July 5th, 2011
4:45 pm
Hooray for american justice. We are so flooded with the medias point of view that our thoughts that we become followers of this media prosecution. All of the so called news is bias based on there profession. As individuals we need to keep media out of the courtroom. The American way of justice is to be judged by our peers and not the media. Shame on Nancy Grace, Watach her now change her opinion as well as the HLN Network. Ratings go a long way. I hope that Casey can now move on.
Sue
July 5th, 2011
4:45 pm
The jury did the correct thing. Based on FACTS presented in the court room it was the only option for the jury. Shame on HLN reporters for their clear biased opinions! The jury was made up of peers, NOT lawyers, judges or doctors. Why didn’t the prosecution charge her with something that would have stuck! Casey seems to be a young idiot. She may have wanted to go out to party and may have drugged sweet Caylee, but I saw no proof of murder 1. Some type of manslaughter..YES! Why did the state let her get away scott free???????? They shot for the moon and missed!
SHEY
July 5th, 2011
4:46 pm
YALL SEE HOW OJ GOT OFF RIGHT??!!!!…….. YEARS LATER HIS ASS IS IN JAIL AFTER ALL! (i’M BLACK, SO DON’T TRY IT WITH THE RACE CARD) WITH THAT BEING SAID!! GOD WATCHES EVERYTHING, CASEY WILL HAVE HER MOMENT WATCH! SHE WILL GET INTO TROUBLE AND WILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO JAIL AND THIS TIME FOR GOOD!!!!!
angela burton
July 5th, 2011
4:46 pm
hope…you think its funny and you act as if you’re happy another murderer is going to be rich off the killing her own child….seriously? really? grow up what if it was your child
judy
July 5th, 2011
4:47 pm
will they continue to look for a killer since they say casey is NOT GUILTY?
David potter
July 5th, 2011
4:49 pm
Hey Nancy Grace what next? Who are you going to try to convict based on ONLY your opinion?
GT4EVER
July 5th, 2011
4:49 pm
There are hundreds of people every year in this country that go months without reporting the death of a loved one….most of the bodies are still in the exact spot they died.Does that mean they murdered them?TV is more of an addictive drug than a lot of controlled substances.It warps your mind
angela burton
July 5th, 2011
4:52 pm
No…not because nancy grace said so…the hell with that…would you not tell the police for 31 freaking days what happend to your dead child…come on…common since..im sure you would have called 911 and did the right thing..right…and feeding starving kids and murder is so far fetched…cant compare the two…:)