It’s a smaller-scale version of the Mad Men effect, as spotted by veteran media critic Richard Rushfield in 2011:
“Mad Men at its height was watched by 2.9 million viewers. In contrast, CBS’ military police procedural drama NCIS last week was seen by 19.7 million viewers. As far as I can tell, NCIS has never been featured on the cover of any major American magazine apart from TV Guide and one issue of Inland Empire,
they still operate under the frayed pretence that they are covering the ‘news’ of culture, giving their readers a report on what the most important developments of the day in the entertainment world. By that standard, the ‘flood the zone’ coverage of Mad Men is completely unjustified in comparison to the information blackout on NCIS.”
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And how much of Maher, Oliver, Bee, and Daily Show viewerships are an overlap?