Russians Tired Of Propagandists: Solovyov And Skabeyeva "Dropped" From Top 10 Programs On TV

The stars began to dim on the towers of Russian state propaganda. The talk show of Vladimir Solovyov and Olga Skabeyeva on the Russia-1 TV channel fell out of the top 10 programs by audience share, according to Mediascope data, the moscowtimes portal reports.

In late April, "Evening with Vladimir Solovyov" TV show, where participants predicted the quick collapse of the "Nazis", took 4th place in the rating, second only to news programs. Skabeyeva's "60 Minutes", where viewers were told about the arrival time of rockets to European capitals, stayed on the 10th line, and in the first days of the war, it rose to the all-Russian top-5.

But after a series of military defeats, the surrender of Kherson, and the unconvincing silence of the Russian President, propagandists who are key to the Kremlin have lost their charm. Solovyov's show fell to 17th place, and Skabeyeva's - to 13th. Together with them, all the programs of the Channel One Russia, including "Vremya" [Time], disappeared from the top 10 of the rating, and they were replaced by the entertainment shows "Nuka, vse vmeste!” [Come on, all together!], “Privet, Andrei!” [Hello, Andrei!] and "Songs from the Heart".

Russians "stay away from news about the war so as not to undermine their mental and physical health," says the director of the Levada Center, Denis Volkov. People got tired of propaganda already in the summer: according to Romir, from February to August, the audience reach of the Channel One, Russia-1 and NTV collapsed by a quarter. If 33.7% of the population watched the Channel One at the beginning of the, then in August - 25.5%. Coverage of Russia-1 decreased from 30.9% to 23%, and NTV - from 21.1% to 16.6%.

The mobilization came as a shock to many, states Volkov: "The basic condition of a calm state of well-being has changed - that somewhere there are hostilities, but it does not affect us."

In response to the drop in ratings, the Kremlin ordered some state media to start admitting military failures. According to Bloomberg, in October, President Vladimir Putin held a closed meeting with military correspondents, after which new entries were added to the propaganda matrix.

In the Kremlin, there were fears that the too rosy picture of propaganda shows will start to raise more and more doubts about its adequacy, Bloomberg sources said. According to them, at the meeting with Putin, military journalists described a terrible picture of what is happening at the front, and some of them wondered whether Putin has a full idea of ​​the real situation in Ukraine.