Cramer’s “Mad Money” a sensation at 3 a.m.

Claire Atkinson of the New York Post writes Sunday about how Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” show is drawing plenty of viewers when it repeats on CNBC at 3 a.m.

Atkinson writes, “Cramer’s ‘Mad Money,’ one of the most-hyped shows on CNBC, gets a larger audience when rebroadcast in the predawn hours on the NBC network than during its live 6 p.m. airing on the business cable channel.

“Our completely uninformed sources speculate that Wall Street traders are probably crawling home from clubbing at that hour and, while checking their computers for the latest on the Asian markets, have Cramer on the TV for background noise.

“NBC first started airing ‘Mad Money’ at 3 a.m. in March and whaddya know — the manic stock picker has an average audience so far of 400,000.

“The 57-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader attracts just 187,000 viewers on his CNBC show.

“David Scardino, programming analyst at ad agency RPA, said: ‘It may show the staying power of a broadcast network versus a cable network. I’m surprised, but it makes you wonder how many people have fallen asleep with the TV on.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.