Dobbs’ return a mixed bag

Lou Dobbs’ return as CNN’s Moneyline anchor last week drew an average nightly audience of 250,000, a huge improvement over the show’s performance a week earlier when it attracted an average of 164,000 viewers, but still behind CNBC’s Business Center, which averaged 356,000, the New York Times reported Monday. However, Monday’s Wall Street Journal observed that Moneyline‘s total audience dropped to 121,000 viewers on Thursday night, below the show’s average before Dobbs’ return. On the same night Business Center drew 296,000 viewers. Responding to controversy generated by a Washington Post article last week indicating that Dobbs had received a $30,000 fee to address a meeting of Ford executives in Florida, a spokesman for CNN said that Dobbs would donate the fee to charity, as is his custom.