There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. Elites are controlling the transmission. If Elites wish to watch Lena Dunham naked, we will renew “Girls” despite humiliating ratings. If Elites wish to kill “Newsroom,” we will despite the fact it pulls in almost twice as many viewers as “Girls.”
HBO’s renewal notice for Aaron Sorkin’s “Newsroom” is really a cancellation notice. The pay channel announced that the upcoming third season of the Jeff Daniels drama will be its last. This, despite the fact the show’s ratings are up. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “the season-two premiere lured 2.2 million, up 4 percent from season one.”
Those are not stellar ratings but it is just a fact that “Newsroom” is much more popular than “Girls,” which HBO renewed for a fourth season before the third season even premiered. In its season three premiere, “Girls” drew only 1.1 million viewers.
It is a free country and HBO is free to do whatever it wants, and that includes thumbing its nose at its own customers who obviously like “Newsroom” a whole lot more than “Girls.”
But let’s stop pretending that popularity or eyeballs have anything to do with what guides popular culture. Elites love “Girls” and despise “Newsroom,” and it is the opinion of elites, not we the unwashed, who decide what is and is not popular culture.
We can also see this reflected in the media surrounding “Girls.” Nobody watches the show except for media elite, so it’s all over the media as though it some kind of phenom as opposed to the flop it really is.
Meanwhile, “Duck Dynasty,” which reaches 25 times the viewers as “Girls,” only receives elite media attention when the elites are trying to destroy it.
UPDATE: This post has been updated to reflect the just-released number of viewers for the “Girls” season premiere.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC