FRONT AND CENTER
Viewers mad about CNBC's Cramer

BY MATEA GOLD
TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS: Los Angeles Times
Published September 4, 2005

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. -- Stumble across Jim Cramer's show on CNBC and you may think you've come upon a music video featuring a balding, manic businessman. Lights pulsate as cameras sweep the set, lightning crackling on a flat-panel screen while booms of thunder punctuate a loud electronic guitar riff. Then a middle-aged man in rolled-up shirt sleeves flings his chair across the room, gesticulating wildly as he shouts, "Are you reaaddyyy SKIDADDYYY?!?" This is not your father's finance show.

It's "Mad Money With Jim Cramer," the former hedge fund manager's high-octane hourlong take on the world of stocks. For CNBC, it's a far cry from sedate business fare like Louis Rukeyser's "Wall Street Week," which used to define the genre.

Since it debuted in March, the program has transformed the 5 p.m. time slot from one of the business channel's lowest-rated into one of its highest, with an average of 182,000 viewers, a jump of 80 percent from a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.