The Sunday Show Scorecard

By CJP | November 26, 2007

If it’s Monday, it’s time for the Sunday shows to get the results of the CJP Sunday Show Scorecard, our effort to remind people that even though most of the voters are women (55% in 2004), most of the people talking about politics on any given Sunday are men. To prove our point, the Sundays helpfully booked fewer women this week than last. Thanks for the support!

CJP loves the Sunday shows, but would love them even more if they looked a little more like the rest of us. As a reminder, here’s how it works:

Zero Janes: No women guests. Is this journalism or the men’s room?

One Jane: At least one female guest. She may be lonely, but at least she’s there.

Two Janes: 50% of the guests are women, almost as much as the electorate.

Three Janes: A coveted and rarely achieved rating- all of the guests are women. (Points will be deducted if the main topic is, “Is American ready for a woman president?”)

So here we go:

For Sunday, November 25, 2007:

NBC’s “Meet the Press”- James Carville, Mary Matalin, Michael Murphy and Bob Schrum. One Jane. Sad.

“Fox News Sunday”- Brit Hume, Maura Liasson, Juan Williams and Bill Kristol…..Again, one woman, one Jane.

ABC’s “This Week”- George Will, Cokie Roberts, Jon Karl and Andrew Sullivan…..CJP loves Cokie, but she even she rates just one Jane.

CBS’s “Face the Nation”- Gen. Anthony Zinni, Lawrence Wright, Rick Atkinson and Robin Wright. Four guest talkers, one woman and one very familiar rating…..one Jane.

The “Chris Matthews Show”- Nora O’Donnell, Elisabeth Bumiller, Clarence Page and David Brooks….The Chris Matthews Show always books two of Washington’s smart women, and therefore will always get a very respectable, and this week almost dazzling, score of two Janes!

Sunday shows, you confuse CJP. Women are most of the voters, make up a larger share of the television audience and make most of the financial decisions in a household (including buying your advertisers’ products). Why do you feature so many more men than women on your round tables? Hopefully next week, you’ll either reveal your mysterious ways or surprise the CJP audience with more lady talkers. Happy booking!

Topics: Sunday Show Scorecard

Comments