Funerals and memorial services are turning out to be popular for national cable news networks. Services for public figures frequently boost the ratings for CNN, MSNBC and the Fox News Channel, which all carried live coverage of former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater’s funeral Wednesday.
Big audiences weren’t a surprise for Princess Diana’s funeral, a major news story. But deaths of a lesser magnitude are also big business: memorials for both Sonny Bono and Tammy Wynette each more than tripled CNN’s typical audience, for example.
“It becomes a way of communal mourning,” said Howard Polskin, CNN spokesman. “It’s a way for people who can’t be there to gather around the television set and pay their respects. It helps with national grieving.”
Wynette’s funeral had a 1.8 rating for CNN, compared with its typical daytime average of 0.5, the network said. MSNBC and Fox also said the country music star’s funeral drew a bigger audience than their typical days.
Bono’s funeral doubled MSNBC’s average audience. The network also ran a special “Time & Again” feature on Bono’s life the night after he was killed in a skiing accident and it more than doubled the network’s average prime-time audience, a spokeswoman said.
