America is getting tired of James J. Cramer's act. That's the conclusion I draw from mediabistro.com's recent report on the decline in the ratings for Cramer's Mad Money. Cramer's ratings dropped 29% from 2006 -- he fell below 200,000 total viewers at 6pm in May -- averaging 175,000 for the month -- by contrast his May 2006 average was 247,000 viewers. Moreover, his viewership has been dropping in the last few months -- In March, he averaged 255,000, and in April, he averaged 205,000.
To his credit, unlike fellow prime time business buffoon, Donald Trump, Cramer does not even try to create the illusion that he has hair. But I think Cramer jumped the shark as he was writing his self-pitying New York Magazine article which came out last month.
While Mad Money helped pump up interest in the stock market, individual investors are still a sideshow to the current market action. It's institutions, private equity firms, and hedge funds that rule the roost. And they march to a different drummer.
So unless Cramer can totally retool his act -- or perform the miracle of consistently making stock picks that beat the market -- he'll slowly fade into the sunset.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-09-2007 @ 11:18AM
Jon Leek said...
That's one of the scariest photos I ever saw!
Put's me off swimming!
http://www.bigtravelweb.com
6-10-2007 @ 5:26AM
Tom J. said...
I think Peter Cohan is missing the point, in terms of Cramer's "importance." What I'm finding is, a lot of guys watch the show with their fathers, a lot of fathers watch the show with their kids. Mention "Mad Money" at a Little League game and you'll see what I'm saying.
I remember watching Louis Reukeyser's Wall Street Week with my father, and I that helped get me started as an investor (looking at my portfolio now, I wished I'd started even sooner). Cramer's show, absurd as it is, gets younger investors started, and provides an opportunity for fathers (and mothers) to educate their children in the fine art of "wealth enhancement."