Yahoo's Mashup -- The Results Are In

The Associated Press reports that comedian Bill Maher was the most viewed person last week in the Yahoo/Slate/Huffington Post presidential online conversation with the Democratic candidates running for president. (Does that have anything to do with Maher's on-air plugging of this project, I wonder?)

The online conversation drew more than a million viewers, according to statistics quoted in the story.

Comedian Bill Maher, who asked one of four questions posed to each of the eight candidates, attracted viewers 42 percent of the time. He quizzed the hopefuls about the Ten Commandments, marijuana legalization, the relative dangers of sugar, coal dust and terrorism, and the climate-changing impact of cows.

Of those 1.1 milllion viewers, 429,000 were between the ages 18 and 34, according to Yahoo.

But the 1.1 million is still a lower number than the numbers of viewers for the more traditionally televised debates.

The total audience for the July CNN/YouTube debate was more than double that number with 2.6 million viewers. A CNN representative said afterwards that the debate had drawn the highest number of young viewers in the 18-34 demographic since measurements for cable viewers began in 1992.

Meanwhile, a regular televised June 3 New Hampshire debate between the
Democrats running for president drew the largest audience of the three debates -- 2.8 million viewers.

And a Republican presidential hopeful debate earlier this month hosted by Fox news drew a record 3.14 million viewers -- the highest viewership level for any of the debates this year.

But perhaps that's the point: The online footage and interaction provided by Yahoo, Slate and The Huffington Post was meant to reach a more targeted audience.

If that is the case, the trio of companies did well in competitive terms. Granted, the period of time being measured is a different one, but the 429,000 viewers between 18 and 34 who watched the candidate online mashup/conversation was a slightly higher number than the 407,000 18-34-year-olds who watched the CNN/YouTube debate. And undoubtedly more people in that demographic will continue watching the candidate videos on Yahoo.

The Huffington Post has some other politically-tantalizing factoids:

• In Iowa, which is scheduled to hold the first contest of the presidential primary season, viewers showed the most interest in Iraq:
41 percent of the video clips watched in Iowa dealt with the war.

• Obama's audience skewed younger: 41 percent of his audience was under the age of 35 - compared to 36 percent for Clinton.

• Iowa women were most interested in John Edwards' position on health care.

• Older Iowans gravitated towards candidates' answers about Iraq.

• While older audiences focused on Iraq and health care, younger Mashup viewers were more interested in education and Bill Maher's "wildcard"
question.

Illinois senator Barack Obama won Yahoo's online poll with 35% of the
'voters' saying that they would pick him. He just edged out New York senator Hillary Clinton, who received 31% of the vote. Former North
Carolina senator John Edwards received just 12% and Bill Richardson 5%.

Meanwhile, 44 movies were generated by the online "debate," according to a statistic on Yahoo's online editing tool, Jumpcut. Weirdly, many of the movies appear to be those put together for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's audience-generated advertising campaign. A whole bunch of others appear to be put together by "a former advisor to [the] Kucinich campaign."

Was the audience just not inspired?

See Also:

• Republican CNN/YouTube Debate Moved to November
• Last Chance to Submit Questions to the Democrats ... For This Week ...
• Audience Will Be Able to Shape Democrats' Presidential Debate ...