Christa Pike's medical expert draws a hundred times Times Radio's usual first day
Dr Joel Zivot, retained by Pike's legal team, explained on air what went wrong when two lethal injections failed to kill her. The station returned to the case from several other sides the same day.
Times RadioStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 831,013 views a day, 105 times a normal first day on this channel (7,906).
Christa Pike ‘May Have Brain Damage’ After Botched Lethal Injections | Her Medical Expert Explains
Times Radio gave its microphone to the doctor in the case. Dr Joel Zivot, the medical expert retained by Christa Pike's legal team, told Hugo Rifkind what went wrong when two lethal injections in Tennessee failed to kill her. He also described the brain injury and the "host of medical conditions" he says she could now face. Sixteen hours after the clip went up, it had close to 700,000 views, more than a hundred times what a new video on the channel usually gathers in a full day.
Rifkind, a Times columnist who presents a late-morning show on the station, was joined by Patrick Kidd, the paper's parliamentary sketch writer. The description sums up Zivot's view plainly: Pike is still alive, and the partial attempt may leave her with lasting harm.
The station covered the case from several angles that day. Will Puckett, an anchor at WVLT and one of the accredited witnesses, said a curtain was drawn three separate times, so those watching could not see what was happening inside the room. Criminal justice author Corinna Barrett Lain argued that lethal injection hides the violence of an execution behind a chemical veneer. US reporter Anita Powell explained the lawyer's argument that Pike suffered unnecessary agony. Each of those clips drew only a small share of the audience that found the medical explanation.
More than five thousand comments arrived in the first hours. Many come from people who say they place IVs for a living, such as nurses, paramedics and a veterinary technician, and they ask how the drug could have missed the vein. Others point to the state now working to keep alive the person it set out to execute, and many turn their thoughts to the victim's family.
The channel had other strong debuts on the same day. Two Andrew Neil segments from The Times At One also ran far past a usual first day: one questioned Manchester City's latest legal defence, and the other warned Andy Burnham against reopening the Brexit debate.
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- Channel
- Times Radio
- Subscribers
- 1,300,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 879,193 (on a normal day: 785,865)
- Video published
- October 1, 2026
- Video views so far
- 699,035 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 831,013
The numbers
This video drew more than a hundred times the channel's usual first day, on a day when two other new uploads also ran well above the norm.
