The biz news attraction of Charlie Rose

David Kaplan of Fortune writes about the Charlie Rose show, which will begin appearing on Bloomberg Television later this fall, and its appearl to business news junkies.

Kaplan writes, “The show’s modest numbers belie its true reach. TV ratings over the past year, calculated city by city by Nielsen for Fortune, indicate his nightly viewership is probably well under a million. Over the past year in Washington, for example, his audience averaged but 7,000 a day. In New York City it was roughly 67,000 (compared, say, with Nightline’s 338,000 or Larry King Live’s 308,000).

“Nonetheless, few would dispute that it’s Rose’s show that carries the most influence. Nobody watches Charlie Rose except everybody you know.

“Last October, when Buffett wanted to reassure markets that the economy wasn’t going to hell, he chose to go on Charlie Rose for the hour. When Geithner went on in May — his second appearance of the spring — he made news by admitting that global monetary policy had helped produce the financial crisis.

“His predecessor at Treasury, Hank Paulson, went on last October to discuss the meltdown; days after 9/11, as the CEO of Goldman Sachs, he went on to soothe the financial community. ‘You get the time you need,’ he says. ‘But he can lure you and hit you right between the eyes — hard questions in a soft way.'”

Read more here. Rose already tapes his show at Bloomberg.