Posted on 09/12/2006 8:29:45 AM PDT by abb
ANTICIPOINTMENT: CBS 'EVENING NEWS' WITH COURIC KNOCKED TO 3RD IN MONDAY ROMP; NBC 'NIGHTLY' TAKES BACK TOP SPOT WITH 5.8 RATING/11 SHARE, IN OVERNIGHT METERED MARTS, AFTER COURIC DEBUT WEEK DRAMA... ABC 'WORLD' FINISHED SECOND MONDAY WITH 5.7/11 SHARE TO CBS COURIC 5.4/10... DEVELOPING..
Thank you
Only if it's high in fiber.
More...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6371186.html
Moonves Talks About Freston Ouster, Future of Viacom
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/12/2006 6:15:00 PM
CBS Corporation chief Leslie Moonves said Tuesday he did not know the recent ouster of his Viacom counterpart Tom Freston was coming.
Speaking at a Tuesday luncheon in Beverly Hills hosted by the Hollywood Radio & Television Society, Moonves said he found out about the move when Sumner Redstone called him while Moonves was attending the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York.
“He said he was replacing Tom with Phillipe Dauman and Tom Dooley and the board had decided to do this along with him,” Moonves said.
A tight-lipped Moonves, however, did not want to speculate on the reasoning behind the move.
“I don’t want to talk a lot about Viacom because I don’t want to get myself into trouble,” he said.
In a 55-minute interview with Charlie Rose that is set to air on Rose’s television show later this week, an otherwise-outspoken Moonves also reiterated he was happy for CBS to originally be looked upon by Wall Street as the company with less growth opportunity when Viacom split its assets.
“I’m not usually considered the underdog, but it was a good position to be in,” he said.“As long as they established us that way, that was fine with us.”
When asked about future acquisitions, Moonves said he will be cautious.
“Wall Street likes us, so I’m not going to do anything dumb.”
He did say that he does have his eye on one area that other media companies have already bought into.
“We are looking at investing in the some of the new media assets out there.I’d like to invest in some of the new social networking technologies.”
Moonves added he is taking a look at Facebook.com, “like everyone is,” and would be interested in You Tube at the right price, but not at the values being thrown around currently.
He also spoke about the addition of Katie Couric to his news division, saying that after being in last place for a decade at 6:30, just being competitive again was “all we can ask for.”
Moonves also said his task is to lower the median age of the newscast.
“We have to get some younger people, and by younger I mean like 47,” he laughed.
Responding to questions of how a CEO can still have time to be so heavily involved in the primetime decision making from reading scripts to weighing in on casting, Moonves said that it is just the way he does business, and that his staff has grown accustomed to it.
“They are used to me being a pain in the neck,” he said.
Moonves also had a couple of his typically-confident barbs, such as when he told Rose that companies like Yahoo! and Google need his content because they don’t have the models to create their own.
“Lloyd Braun came down, he wanted to eat us all alive,” Moonves said of the former ABC entertainment chief now at Yahoo.“It didn’t work.”
When told that Fox News chief Roger Ailes is talking about “My Space Television,” Moonves fired back, “Is it going to be better than MyNetworkTV?”
At one point in the interview, Rose looked at Moonves and said, “You seem to be a bit cocky.”
“I’m speechless,” a smiling Moonves responded.
Among other highlights of the conversation:
·Moonves, when asked why dramas are doing so well right now: “If I knew the answer to that question, I would be very rich.Actually, I am very rich.”
·On the battle with advertisers over which TiVo measurement should be used: “They won this year, I think we will win next year.”
·On wishing he would have gotten Paramount Pictures when Viacom split: “I won’t deny that.Sumner made a decision and life goes on.”
Maybe they should try Al Frankenstein??
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
OhTheHughManatee
Hahahahahahaha.
I just forced myself to watch this train wreck of a newscast for the first time. Absolutely hideous...
Crazy Katie sank faster than an anchor on the Titanic.
From Variety...
http://www.variety.com/VR1117949947.html
Couric opens second week in third place
Ratings fall on fifth anni of 9/11 attacks
By MICHAEL LEARMONTH
Katie Couric's "Evening News" fell to third place Monday night, just six nights after she stormed into first in her debut week at CBS.
Couric's debut as anchor of the "Evening News" brought well over 13 million total viewers last week and while her audience dwindled from there, she finished the week with a comfortable 3 million-viewer lead over NBC's "Nightly News" and ABC's "World News."
But on Monday, the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Couric resumed a ratings position only slightly better than the one Bob Schieffer left her with. Her 7.49 million total viewers were slightly behind ABC's 7.87 million and NBC's 8.27 million.
The margin between first and third was extremely close in ratings terms on Monday night -- fewer than a million viewers -- and CBS tied ABC in the key demographic for advertisers, adults 25-54.
And there was some inter-network squabbling over whether the night represented a typical night of television. One might expect strong news audiences on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, but others argued that auds were impacted by President Bush's speech on the West Coast, and the first Monday night NFL games of the season.
"As I've said repeatedly and from day one, our focus is on the long-term developments, not the short term," CBS News and Sports prexy Sean McManus said. "However, given that is was a somewhat atypical night of viewing, to be in this close competition for first place shows how far we've come in just one week."
On Monday, Couric anchored the newscast from Ground Zero and appeared to have trouble holding back tears as she closed the newscast after a feature on a boy who lost his father on 9/11 and the young executive who volunteered to mentor him.
In the New York market, Fox's "Geraldo at Large" outrated CBS' "Evening News" in the 25-54 demo.
CBS' fall to third was received with no small amount of glee in the news departments of NBC and ABC, which had little to do last week but stand by and wonder how many viewers who sampled her show would stick around long-term.
Rival nets pointed out that Couric's "Evening News" aired the least amount of hard news among the network newscasts over the course of last week.
According to news analyst Andrew Tyndall, CBS aired 19 minutes of hard news last week, compared with 46 minutes for ABC and 44 minutes for NBC.
McManus addressed this initial criticism of the newscast last week by arguing that the week after Labor Day was a slow news week, and that feel-good stories are a constant feature of all network evening newscasts. In addition, CBS spent the first week establishing its new commentary segment, "Free Speech," which took minutes away from the news hole.
Bummer...
LOL - I'm so old, I remember John Cameron Swayze on NBC!
awwwwwwww.... I hope she already cashed the check.
I guess we both take a licking and keep on ticking. ;o)
gravity takes effect...........
ROFL! Thanks! :)
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