How Will NBC’s Hiring of Chelsea Clinton Go Over With Viewers?

Mediabistro.com is partnering up with Poll Position, the new polling company founded by former CNN executive Eason Jordan. On occasion, TVNewser and our other blogs will share results from Poll Position polls having to do with news media consumption and coverage. Each Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday night, Poll Position conducts national telephone polling, asking more than 1,000 Americans 10 hot topic questions in addition to demographic questions – gender, race, age, political affiliation. Among the Poll Position questions this week was the following:

NBC News has hired the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, as a special correspondent to report stories about ordinary Americans who do extraordinary things. Will NBC’s hiring of Chelsea Clinton make you more or less inclined to watch NBC News programs?

More Inclined	Less Inclined	Makes No Difference	N/O
24.4%	28.5%	45.1%	2.0%

National Telephone Poll of 1,170 Registered Voters / 11.15.11 / Margin of Error +/- 3%

For a significant plurality of people, Clinton’s hiring doesn’t seem to have an impact on whether they will tune in or not. When broken down into specific demographics, Clinton’s hiring did have a slight impact however:

Poll Position Crosstabs – NBC-Chelsea Clinton
As you can see in the crosstabs, younger people (those 18-29 years old) were slightly more likely to tune in because of Clinton’s hiring. Likewise, Democrats suggested that they were more likely to watch because of her hiring, while Republicans suggested that they were likely to not watch because of the addition of Clinton.

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