Limbaugh draws lots of Golf Channel viewers, relatively speaking

Not sure why TV executives have so much trouble figuring out how to get viewers for their shows. Hire a major media superstar guaranteed to bring both attention and controversy, and poof! Instant ratings. Where's the mystery in that, I ask you?

The Golf Channel is proudly reporting that this past Tuesday's season premiere of The Haney Project, featuring radio firebrand Rush Limbaugh, was the most-watched season premiere of any Golf Channel original series since Charles Barkley hacked away in the first season of Haney's series.

The Rush episode had a 0.3 rating and 310,000 average total viewers. For perspective, Monday night's BCS championship drew 27.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable TV program in history. And Ray Romano, star of his own Haney Project, drew 33 million for his own Everybody Loves Raymond series finale. The record is still M*A*S*H's finale, with 122 million. Wow.

Anyway, love him or hate him, you have to respect what Rush does -- he gets people talking. And while an anonymous Golf Channel instructor droning on about swing theory and visualization may be fun for a, uh, select audience, you can't beat Rush unloading red-meat gems like "liberals would have a tough time with this game" for sheer rabble-rousing. 

Let's not focus on the fact that a 0.3 rating isn't all that much higher than the percentage of people who forget to turn off their televisions when they leave the house, shall we? Congrats to the Golf Channel for some good news. Always welcome these days.

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