Sarah Palin’s Show Total Disaster: Advertisers Laugh At It, May Not Buy Ad Space

Paying Sarah Palin $250,000 per episode to kill and eat wolf pups or whatever may not have been the Discovery Channel’s wisest decision. According to the Young Turks, a source at the channel says a presentation of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” to ad buyers prompted eye rolling, snickering, straight-up laughter.

“People were laughing and it’s not even a comedy. No one took it seriously.”

This person was concerned that given the lack of interest from ad buyers that Discovery would have to dump the show to “a crappy time slot” to cut its losses. They added, “Bottom line everyone thought it was a new all time low for Discovery. My guess is the show is going to tank big time.”

Look, almost no one likes Sarah Palin. Only 24 percent of Americans view her favorably, according to this CBS poll. Only 37 percent of Republicans “strongly” like her, according to this ABC News/Washington Post poll. I haven’t seen any polls that indicate what percentage of teabaggers are huge fans, but I’d bet it’s not as high as we’d assume, since at least some of them claim to eschew established political figures (and her very expensive presence at some events has stirred up controversy).

So yes, hooking a nature show to a wildly unpopular and polarizing figure, with an atrocious environmental record? Not the smartest.