“Live Earth”: A “foul-mouthed flop”

Bbbbbut, they did it to save the world:

Live Earth has been branded a foul-mouthed flop.

Organisers of the global music concert – punctuated by swearing from presenters and performers – had predicted massive viewing figures.

But BBC’s live afternoon television coverage attracted an average British audience of just 900,000.

In the evening, when coverage switched from BBC2 to BBC1, the figure rose to just 2.7million.

And the peak audience, which came when Madonna sang at Wembley, was a dismal 4.5million. Three times as many viewers saw the Princess Diana tribute on the same channel six days before.

Two years ago, Live 8 drew a peak television audience of 9.6million while Live Aid notched 10million in 1985.

The BBC blamed the poor figures on Saturday’s good weather and said its Wimbledon tennis coverage had drawn away afternoon viewers.

Critics said however that the public had simply snubbed what they saw as a hypocritical event.

Musicians including Bob Geldof, Roger Daltrey and the Pet Shop Boys pointed out that a concert highlighting climate change had itself generated huge carbon emissions.

Performers were criticised for flying to concerts that were staged simultaneously on seven continents.

The BBC’s coverage, which ran for 15 hours from 12.30pm on Saturday to 4am yesterday, also sparked dozens of complaints about bad language.

The swearing started at 1.30pm when Phil Collins, the first act on in London, used the f-word while singing with his band Genesis.

Van Helsing at Moonbattery speculates that the lower than expected attendance for the “Live Earth” concerts could possibly be blamed on the 2007 Amazing Roswell UFO Festival, which started Thursdsay in New Mexico.

For more laughs, Mark Finkelstein reports on one journalist’s seeming obsession with touching the Goracle during a “Live Earth” interview. Gives to meaning to the phrase “Brush with greatness” (assuming one thinks that the Goracle is “great”).

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