With a few exceptions, I rarely want to hear somebody cut a 10 minute promo, but there are apparently enough people that do. My guess is that the spikes were more likely from people flipping channels.

They can get in a rut where if something worked to increase ratings then more of it must be good.

As a related example: American gladiators has what, 6 stunts done per hour show, most lasting only 1 minute? But it’s a 60 minute show… The cost of doing an hour of stunts is huge, considering the variation they throw it. Thus, noise instead of good stuff.