Well, let's keep things in perspective.
ABC had very poor shows leading up to Bad 25: Charlie Brown had 4.0M down 33%. So BAD 25 did pick up a bit. It was ABC's highest rated show for the night. Aside from running the 30 sec commercial on the network, there was no other advertisement.
Instead of giving Randal Sullivan a primetime slot to plug his book last week, ABC could have used the 10 minutes to discuss the upcoming BAD 25 special.
There was no appearance on The View. nothing on Jimmy Kimmel. Nothing on GMA (except for a 10-second mention on Tuesday).
Gaga had a 5.5M ( and I am sure she had several appearances to plug her special) and Beyonce had a 4.2M. A 4.6 (4.5 depending on the source) isn't bad at all. I am curious to know how many DVR'd the show last night or how many are watching it on Hulu
And let's not forget the fact that several major stores open at 8PM last night, instead of the usual after midnight.
considering this year's circumstances, I think it did well enough. I hope many other people will have to opportunity to watch it on Hulu.
So basically, after watching Charlie Brown most people stayed to watch Gaga. She didn't have that disastrous "Modern Family" in between. Add to the fact this year, CB lost 1.7M viewers (CB only had 4M), so BAD had a lot to make up for.
This can be spinned anyway you want, but of course the media will use MJ's name in a negative story to grab headlines.
ETA: One last thing and the media will not point it out....Gaga LOST viewers (CB had given her a 5.7M headstart and she ended up 5.5 so 200K people tuned out) ...while Michael gained viewers. Had MJ had a nice lead-in, just like Gaga's, this would have been a different story.
