Z on TV: Fox News owns election night -- and Palin delivers

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Baltimore sun Television critic David Zurawik, noting that Fox News beat MSNBC, CNN and HLN combined in the election night Nielson ratings, thanks in part to contributor Sarah Palin's appearance on a segment of 'Hannity':

Tuesday night, Fox had her remote from the studio they built for her in Alaska. And instead of the usual urban backdrop of skyscrapers and twinkly nightlights for such remotes, they had daylight, trees and a big body of blue-blue water behind her. I'm serious, it was so strikingly different, that I would not have been surprised to see Morty, The Moose, from "Northern Exposure," come ambling up to the window behind her to give it a good nose bump.

At first glance, I thought it was going to be a disaster. But she never sounded better in her new Fox role. She looked relaxed, she made her points, and the distance suggested by the contrast in settings made her seem "small" enough on-screen so that Hannity didn't look like he was about to genuflect or get whiplash from nodding in agreement every time she opened her mouth.

I think this is case where the money was well spent on creating a set to make Palin feel happy and calm. It was a daring idea to let her be herself in a small remote studio in Alaska instead of an high-powered commentator in a blue blazer sitting in a New York studio -- in spite of the conventions of 24/7 cable TV. The Fox News executive who made this call made a good one, and I suspect the ratings are going to continue to reflect that.

Zurawik doesn't credit Gov. Palin for the dominance of Fox News in the ratings, but posits that at least the voters who marked their ballots for Rand Paul in Kentucky came home to watch the governor and coverage of the election on Fox News last night.

h/t: Roy Y

- JP