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Anchor Katie Couric Blasts Into Third Place (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)
WaPo ^ | October 3, 2006 | Lisa de Moraes

Posted on 10/03/2006 5:58:50 AM PDT by abb

CBS's Katie Couric-anchored newscast has fallen to third place in a three-way race for viewers among the broadcast evening newscasts, triggering an exuberant news release from CBS News marveling at Couric's unprecedented double-digit, across-the-board gains in her first month and celebrating her victory over the decades-old ratings curse that has plagued new anchors.

The multimillion-dollar campaign to launch Couric as anchor of the perennially third-place "CBS Evening News" delivered two weeks in which Couric's was the most-watched newscast. It opened with more than 10 million viewers and settled -- not unexpectedly -- down to about 7.9 million the second week.

Couric's slide continued in Week 3; she finished in second place with about 7.7 million viewers, behind perennial evening news winner Brian Williams, who logged about 8.2 million on NBC.

And, while final numbers on Couric's fourth week in office will come out today, it appears from preliminary stats that she has fallen to third place with about 7.5 million viewers, behind Williams's 8.2 million and Charles Gibson's 7.6 million at ABC. To get there, Williams and Gibson held firm week to week, while Couric continued to shed some viewers.

CBS News noted that last week Couric was still in first place among the 25-to-54-year-olds advertisers try to reach with news programming. In that demographic group, Couric tied Williams, and they were one-tenth of a ratings point ahead of Gibson.

CBS slapped Couric on the back for reversing the "historic pattern of first-month losses when anchors change."

"The ratings history of network evening news anchor changes reveals a clear pattern of audience loss in the first month versus the same period a year earlier," CBS News said. "Compared to the five anchor changes of the past two decades, Couric has dramatically reversed that pattern with the broadcast's remarkable growth."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cbs; cbsnews; couric; couricbombs; dbm; msmwoes; nolegsnoratings; television
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To: abb

Katie who??? Must be some LSM wench...


21 posted on 10/03/2006 6:12:33 AM PDT by Issaquahking (Trust can't be bought)
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To: abb

It amazes me that over 7 million people watch this idiocy, third place or not.


22 posted on 10/03/2006 6:13:46 AM PDT by Bahbah (Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev, we are praying for you)
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To: abb

..which is exactly where Bob Schiefer was when Katy took the reigns. lol! And it cost CBS how much to accomplish this broadcast miracle?


23 posted on 10/03/2006 6:14:24 AM PDT by small voice in the wilderness (The dems. can't have a fool-proof plan. There would be no one left in their base.)
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To: johnny7

I rarely watch the evening news but last night I was going back and forth between CBS and ABC. I think ABC makes a more serious, authoritative impression. There's no question that Katie has one of those self-conscious teen-age girl voices. It might be okay for the light stuff but it isn't a newsreader's voice.


24 posted on 10/03/2006 6:14:47 AM PDT by carola
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To: abb

Oh, well.... CBS News was headed for extinction anyway. Katie only accelerated it by a couple of years.


25 posted on 10/03/2006 6:17:59 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: abb; Howlin; neverdem; Gabz

I'm waiting for her to begin Kathy Lee Gifford look: slit skirt, no sweater or coat, see-thru silk blouse, no ....


26 posted on 10/03/2006 6:19:34 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: abb
I love it...

"...and we're back in the bicycle race between ABC, CBS, and NBC news of the broadcast division.... CBS's new cyclist, Kewpie Couric, is pedaling furiously and is now only 120 yards behind the pack instead of 125 yards behind... that's a 5 yard gain this month alone and-- OOh she's down!"
"Yes, but look how gracefully she slides across the roadway, leaving cloth, spandex and flesh along the rut-ridden curbside.."
"Yes, and now rolling with the velocity... I give her an 8!"
"8.3 because of the little smile of hers when she bounced between that granite mile-marker and the possum roadkill..."
"CBS is lucky to have her!"
""Absolutely."

27 posted on 10/03/2006 6:19:49 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: abb

Best headline of the day bump.


28 posted on 10/03/2006 6:22:52 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: abb
I'm not surprised. I watched one of Perky's evening news shows just to see if it was as bad as some have been saying.

It was.

I could stand only about 15 minutes of that drivel before my dinner started rising up my throat.
29 posted on 10/03/2006 6:26:25 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic ("In America, women can vote but horse cannot. It is other way around in my country" - Borat)
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To: abb

Here's the big problem for the network evening news: fewer and fewer people are watching them. Why wait for the evening news when you can get news much faster with 24 hour cable news channels and the public Internet?


30 posted on 10/03/2006 6:28:56 AM PDT by RayChuang88
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To: carola

Voice/delivery/content... the 'perky-one' fails on all counts.


31 posted on 10/03/2006 6:29:23 AM PDT by johnny7 (“And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda... what's Fonzie like?!”)
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To: abb
From Mattlet – Scene 5, Act 1

Matt {holding the Nielsen up to the moon}: Alas, poor Couric! I knew her well, Katie, a gal of infinite left, of most excellent bias. She hath bored me on this a thousand times, and now how more bored in my imagination it is! My views rise at it. Here hung those cheeks that I have kiss’d I know not how oft. Where be your spin now, your soft balls, your mewlings, your flashes of leg, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning - quite proct-fall’n. Now get you to my Rather’s chamber, and tell him, let him forge a new font, to this favor he must come; make him laugh at that. Prithee, Roker, tell me one thing.
32 posted on 10/03/2006 6:31:07 AM PDT by AD from SpringBay (We have the government we allow and deserve.)
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To: HarleyLady27

Third place in a three way race is LAST!


33 posted on 10/03/2006 6:34:05 AM PDT by hgro
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To: abb

Maybe she could supplement her audience with a column in the Chicago Tribune. That would reach an additional 19 people.


34 posted on 10/03/2006 6:35:34 AM PDT by spintreebob
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To: abb

Go Katie Go!Sis Boom Bah!


35 posted on 10/03/2006 6:36:33 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys-Reagan and Bush)
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To: abb

More celebrating of mediocrity by MSM. . .

/sarc


36 posted on 10/03/2006 6:42:56 AM PDT by Joy in the Journey (http://journeywithjoy.blogspot.com/)
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To: abb

Katie is the ANCHOR around CBS's neck!!


37 posted on 10/03/2006 6:42:58 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy ("When Cabals Go Kabooms"....upcoming book on Mary McCarthy's Coup-Plotters.)
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To: Bahbah
It amazes me that over 7 million people watch this idiocy, third place or not.
Well, I suppose at any given half-hour, 7 million (out of 300 million) people could be sitting on the crapper, or scratching their bums, or anything else similar to watching katie...
38 posted on 10/03/2006 6:44:10 AM PDT by frankenMonkey (Are there any men left in Washington, or are they all cowards?)
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To: abb
How many people here didn't see this one coming a mile off?
I am more interested in seeing the numbers for Merideth Viera and Rosie O'Donnell. MV is the most humourless liberal whiner to have a voice on TV and RO'D is a total lesbian nutcase. I don't think it will be very long before both Today and View are in serious trouble.

I don't watch either, but my sister is depressed by the loss of the Shoe Model. Evidently, Katie is not flashing the Jimmy Choo's...Sis is not a big news person, but she switched to Fox because she thinks Brit is sexy. I am afraid to ask if she actually listens to the program!
39 posted on 10/03/2006 6:45:42 AM PDT by ishabibble (ALL-AMERICAN INFIDEL)
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To: Ron in Acreage

How did the Today show rate during the same period?


40 posted on 10/03/2006 6:59:17 AM PDT by maxter
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