Here we see Sarah Palin trying to get the cobwebs out.Two weeks ago, the ratings for Sarah Palin's Alaska collapsed. They were down 40% from the ratings of the first, debut show. The next week, ratings were up 17%. Woo hoo? No. Let's put things into perspective.
Suppose we buy a stock for $100. When it drops 40%, it has to go up $40, which is 66% of its price at $60, to get back to $100. So, the show's ratings then went up 17%? Let's see: 17% of $60 is $10.20. So, our stock is now priced at $70 plus change. Our stock is still way down. It's down 30%!
Of course, things can change.
Kate's show has drawn more viewers than Sarah's show has ever drawn; she's more popular. Won't we have to attribute any improvement in the show's ratings,
As with all things, "It ain't over 'til it's over," but Sarah Palin's show might have had a better reception if it had been more about Alaska than about Sarah Palin.
For another bit of perspective, Dancing With the Stars' final episode had about five times as many viewers as Sarah Palin's Alaska had when it premiered. Bristol won't be old enough to be President for some time, but she's already much more popular than her mom.
If you'd like to read a short comparison of Sarah Palin's show with Ronald Reagan's shows, you might enjoy "How Sarah Palin's Alaska is not like Ronald Reagan's Death Valley Days."
"Kate Gosselin breaks down in tears while camping with Sarah Palin in Alaska's wilderness" has some TLC photos from the show.
But "Sarah Palin & Kate Gosselin's Sucky Wilderness Adventure" tells of some scenes we may not see.
Update: The NY Daily News has an article about Kate Gosselin's appearance on the show. According to that article, the "entire episode" with Kate won't be shown until December 12. The article has a link to Us Magazine, where a trailer can be seen. I am not so sure that Kate will be on tomorrow night.
For a while, I was too scared to read "Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Violated By Sarah Palin!" Who knows what evil lurks ... ?
"Bristol Palin a Pawn in Mom Sarah's Lamesteam Media War" noticed that Bristol Palin's 'Facebook posting is well written and uses a lot of two-dollar words like “canard” and “incredulity.” ' At one point, the article calls MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who doubts that Bristol wrote the Facebook posting, a "fathead," but then the article expresses doubt about whether Bristol actually wrote the Facebook posting.
Whatever! But
That's my $0.02 on that matter.
Finally, what would life be like without Palinman (Palin' Man?):
He's a Superhero? To see Sarah Palin portrayed as a Superhero and read about some real ones, you may like "Sarah Palin: Superhero (?!)" (And pick up some holiday movie tips, too.)
Update, December 5th: I'm sorry about the confusion over what's on tonight's show. The episode with Kate + kids will be on December 12th, not tonight. Tonight's show -- December 5th -- is about hunting.
Sarah must be aware of the show's troubled ratings. She is now trying (Sunday, Dec. 5th) to gin-up a controversy over hunting in an attempt to attract more viewers. She's tweeting things like, "Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather couch or eaten a piece of meat, save your condemnation of tonight's episode." Do people hunt cows?
Update, December 5th: ABC News' The Note has written quite a bit about tonight's show and mentions some of the upcoming shows. Of tonight's show, the column wrote: " ... Palin seems to relish not just the hunt itself, but the political language surrounding it. Her books are loaded with references to “organic sources of protein,” which is a long way of saying say “wild animal meat.” And while she alludes to the idea that the show is somehow controversial, it doesn’t seem that there has been a giant public outcry. Palin seems eager to pick a fight here, even if no one is fighting back." ... . [emphasis added]

