newsmakers

newsmakers

Fox News wins ratings race with GOP debates

NEW YORK

Among the big winners from last week’s Republican presidential debates: Fox News Channel.

Its Thursday-night airing of the A-list debate, which gathered the 10 highest-polling GOP hopefuls including Donald Trump, was by far the most-watched program of the week on either cable or broadcast, drawing 24 million viewers, according to the Nielsen company.

That was more than twice the audience for the week’s second-ranked show, NBC’s Hall of Fame Game, seen by 11 million viewers.

After the debate, “The Kelly File,” hosted by debate co-moderator Megyn Kelly, was seen by nearly 11 million, ranking third for the week.

And even Thursday’s earlier GOP faceoff, spotlighting lesser-polling candidates, won Fox News Channel 6 million viewers (as the week’s 16th-highest-ranked show).

With a huge boost from those debates, Fox News Channel was easily the week’s most-popular cable network overall, averaging 4.26 million viewers. Disney was next, averaging 1.82 million, followed by TNT with 1.62 million and USA with 1.57 million.

Among broadcast networks, NBC won the week in prime time, averaging 5.6 million viewers in its first victory week since May. Runner-up CBS had 5.2 million, followed by ABC with 3.6 million.

Driver fatigue cited as cause of crash that injured Morgan

WASHINGTON

A Wal-Mart truck driver who hadn’t slept in 28 hours failed to slow down despite posted warning signs and was responsible for a highway crash last year that severely injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed another comedian, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

But the board said the failure of Morgan and other passengers in a limousine van to wear seat belts and adjust headrests contributed to the severity of injuries when the limo was struck from behind by the truck.

Most of their injuries were caused when the passengers were whipped around or thrown into the sides of the vehicle, the board said at a meeting to determine the cause of the crash and make safety recommendations.

None of the passengers in the back of the 10-seat limo or the driver was wearing a seat belt.

The board said truck driver Kevin Roper of Jonesboro, Ga., could have prevented the June 7, 2014, crash if he had slowed to 45 mph, the posted speed limit for the construction work zone on the New Jersey Turnpike near Cranbury, where the crash occurred.

The truck traveled 0.9 mile past the first work-zone sign and more than 0.4 mile past the 45 mph speed-limit sign without slowing from 65 mph. The truck was going that fast until it reached a closing distance of approximately 200 feet before the impact.

At 45 mph, the truck could have stopped before impact, the board concluded.

The collision with the limo started a chain-reaction crash that affected 21 people in six vehicles.

Associated Press