Inside Cable News reports that NBC has sent out a survey to VIPs asking them to evaluate “Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo.”
It writes, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ratings report on the show, either for syndication or for its CNBC airings, so I have no idea if ratings are or are not a factor here. Some of the questions stand out more than others…especially the first one.
“1) The Wall Street Journal Name is important in my decision to watch WSJR – It’s 2012…the year that the Wall Street Journal/CNBC deal is supposed to expire. Conventional wisdom has been that the WSJ’s owner News Corp. is going to put the WSJ brand and its staff on FBN. I hadn’t considered the possibility that this likely WSJ scrubbing by CNBC would extend to syndication but this question surely must be gauging viewer opinion on what would/might happen if CNBC is forced to drop the WSJ name from this show.
“There is a similar question at the bottom regarding Maria Bartiromo but I would be very surprised if she either got yanked from the program or took herself off. The whole point of the show is basically to be a vehicle for Bartiromo. If she got taken off what’s the point of the show? So I don’t read much at all into the inclusion of this question.”
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