Iraq war suffers summer slump as ratings 'bomb'
14 Aug 2006 by TheArden
Lower than usual mindless violence has contributed to the Iraq war's lowest monthly viewing figures in nearly three years. The war's share of the TV audience in July stood at 16.7%, down from 20.2% in the same month last year.Organisers of the conflict were last night bullish about the figures, with assistant chief executive Tony Blair saying that other factors were to blame. "Obviously the World Cup had a lot to do with the poor showing and Big Brother has pulled its socks up a bit with the whole 'secret house' stunt but what I say to you is that we've really upped the ante in the last few days with three bombs in Baghdad alone, 'Lost' style flashback scenes involving the rape of a 14 year old girl, trouble in Tikrit and Kirkuk AND we even had an armed raid on a bank with five officials whacked...top that Israel and Hezbollah!" he said.
"Add that to the fact that 5000 trigger happy yanks, previously voted out, have re-entered the city and we'll have more fireworks than Big Brother could ever muster up."
However, ratings analysts say the real reason is the strong showing of the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict which they believe has the potential to run for a good few seasons at least. "They've really got off to a flier," Daily Mirror showbiz correspondent Caroline Hedley said. "We've had at least 1000 dead so far and if you extrapolate that over the 40 months the Iraq war has been showing, that's 40,000 plus, Hellllllo?, those are Syndication figures baby!"
Caroline does have some advice for the conflict's producer, Condoleezza Rice. "Variety," she says, is the key. "So far it's been rocket up, rocket down, rocket up, building down, dead children here, dead children there etc etc yawn yawn yawn..."
"Now we've got a ceasefire, it won't be long before it all starts getting a little tiresome and the ratings plummet to Celebrity Love Island levels."
Related Articles
Al-Zarqawi killed by blast injuries - shock
12 Jun 2006
Suicide attacks in Iraq kill 37 – population critical12 May 2006
Prince Harry Potter will go to Iraq: MoD24 Apr 2006
Saddam Hussein re-instated as President of Iraq18 Feb 2006
Typo ends British army presence in Iraq4 Jan 2006
