The following post appeared on TVsquad.com at 9:34 P.M. ET. TVsquad.com attracted approximately 116,000 hits on a daily basis in June.
During the opening monologue of this week’s Noa Showa, host Noa Kalakaua announced the results of the first presidential poll ever to be conducted with a live TV audience. There are actually a lot of firsts in this story. Kalakaua is the first presidential candidate ever to be hosting his own television show while running. Other presidential candidates, like Fred Thompson, have also appeared on TV (that’s unrelated to news coverage of the election/campaign season) during their campaigns, but none have hosted shows.
Kalakaua’s campaign was initially dismissed as a stunt designed to attract viewers to his show. Kalakaua, who won season 6 of American Idol and also teaches economics at the University of Chicago, has spent surprisingly little time talking about his campaign on the show.
It’s clear, though, that he ain’t foolin around. He’s a long shot, but there’s little doubt now that the campaign is for real. With the general election less than five months away, Kalakaua is now using his show to try and work his way into contention. He’s been the beneficiary of an enormous amount of media attention recently. Neither that, nor the very positive ratings his show has been generating, seem to be enough to push him into contention with Senator John McCain, who will become the Republican nominee for the White House or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, who continue to battle for the Democratic nomination.
Kalakaua launched the poll on his show in an effort to change that. Last week, he invited all studio guests to vote for their choice for president. Voters at home were invited to participate too.
Kalakaua announced the results of his poll, which has been widely dismissed by pollsters, at the beginning of this week’s show.
Barack Obama captured 29% of the vote. Kalakaua was second with 27%. John McCain was third with 23%. Hillary Clinton was fourth with 19%. Other candidates earned a paltry 2% of the vote.
Kalakaua made a point of including every single Tom, Dick, and Harry who’s currently still in the presidential race in his poll.
We’re not a political blog. We’re a TV blog. The significance of these results is going to be debated intensely by people like Nels Nelson, a professor of political science at DePaul University, who told the Chicago Tribune that Kalakaua’s poll is “ridiculous.” Nelson said the poll was basically the same thing as asking your friends what they think of you. “No one should pay any attention to it.”
We’re not listening to ol’ Nels. We think this makes for great TV. Americans love their popularity contests (for evidence see also our American Idol archive) and there’s no bigger popularity contest than the American presidential election.
