According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Assoc. Inc. - a sports and entertainment industry leader in measurement and evaluation of sponsorships and promotional programs - Johnson was interviewed an entire half-hour longer and mentioned 1,800 more times by the announcers than series runner-up Denny Hamlin throughout the course of the season.
The research by Joyce Julius, which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast for the last 25 years, Johnson's name was mentioned 7,875 times during the 36 live event telecasts (and replays) of the 2010 season. Johnson also appeared in a season-high 88 interview segments, which added up to over 1 1/2 hours of television time.
Hamlin, by contrast, drew 6,072 announcer mentions and 56 interviews that totaled just over an hour of TV time. Hamlin won the most races this season and lead the Chase for the Cup going into the season's final race.
According to the research, Kyle Busch was the third-most mentioned driver, Kevin Harvick was fourth and Jeff Gordon fifth.
Year-End Top-20 Interview Results:
| Driver | Pnts | Intervws | Intervwew | Announcer | |
| Time | Mentions | ||||
| 1) | Johnson, J. | 1 | 88 | 1:31:35 | 7,875 |
| 2) | Hamlin, D. | 2 | 56 | 1:01:50 | 6,072 |
| 3) | Busch, Ky. | 8 | 47 | 1:07:13 | 5,500 |
| 3) | Harvick, K. | 3 | 47 | 0:55:00 | 5,346 |
| 5) | Gordon, J. | 9 | 46 | 0:59:03 | 5,039 |
| 6) | Stewart, T. | 7 | 40 | 0:39:29 | 3,957 |
| 7) | Busch, Ku. | 11 | 38 | 0:35:32 | 3,114 |
| 8) | Bowyer, C. | 10 | 36 | 0:36:08 | 3,482 |
| 8) | Edwards, C. | 4 | 36 | 0:51:20 | 3,133 |
| 10) | Burton, J. | 12 | 33 | 0:32:51 | 3,483 |
| 10) | McMurray, J. | 14 | 33 | 0:49:44 | 2,899 |
| 12) | Kahne, K. | 20 | 31 | 0:28:37 | 2,269 |
| 13) | Biffle, G. | 6 | 30 | 0:30:06 | 3,357 |
| 14) | Logano, J. | 16 | 27 | 0:26:59 | 1,982 |
| 15) | Earnhardt, Jr., D. | 21 | 21 | 0:18:45 | 2,155 |
| 16) | Ambrose, M. | 26 | 16 | 0:15:22 | 1,641 |
| 16) | Montoya, J. | 17 | 16 | 0:08:57 | 3,343 |
| 18) | Newman, R. | 15 | 15 | 0:14:24 | 1,966 |
| 19) | Kenseth, M. | 5 | 14 | 0:10:43 | 2,601 |
| 19) | Keselowski, B. | 25 | 14 | 0:12:44 | 1,143 |
Interesting. Apparently no love for the RFR group. Kenseth and Newman have never been media darlings. It's too bad, as they both have wicked senses of humor.
ReplyDeleteSo, does the media play the "favorites" game, too? Perhaps some drivers are just better at providing soundbites in the current media environment? In the end, is it all about the information sought -- or the return on investment?
Hmm I wonder why media would ever focus on Jimmy Johnson or why he was the most frequently mentioned since he usually runs around 25th and isn't on a premiere team and has no history of success. Conspiracy! NASCAR is so broken obviously.
ReplyDelete