Posted on 10/19/2006 10:01:37 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
EVEN NON-NEWS junkies should tremble at the news that last week, the second-season finale of VH-1's "Flavor of Love" garnered 7.5 million viewers, while CBS's evening news with Katie Couric could manage just 7.3 million.
To put this in perspective, Couric spent the week telling viewers about a Congressional scandal and Amish schoolgirls gunned down.
Flavor Fav, formerly of the rap group Public Enemy, was choosing yet another girlfriend in a dubious field that initially included a woman who defecated onstage because she couldn't make it to the restroom in time.
Oh, and Flavor gives the women nicknames because, he admits, after years of substance abuse, his memory is shot.
Flavor didn't even have every newspaper and magazine in the country covering his TV series, unlike Couric who popped up on grocery store tabloid covers like she was a TomKat-Brangelina-Vinnifer cocktail. He didn't blast onto the scene with 13.6 million viewers for his first show, only to slip down to about half that amount.
Couric's fall wasn't unexpected. She was over-hyped right from the beginning by a network who sold her like she was the last iPod on the shelf. After all, she was the first solo woman anchor of a network nightly newscast in the history of broadcast television
Now, for my money, I would rather have seen Soledad O'Brien as the first network anchor. But my money wouldn't pay for a five-second shot with Joan Rivers.
O'Brien now anchors CNN's "American Morning" with Miles "no relation" O'Brien. Since coming on board in July 2003, O'Brien has attracted new viewers to the show — which was also the goal at CBS news. She has secured exclusive interviews with people making the news. And we're not talking about tabloid news.
I was more than a little embarrassed for Couric when she interviewed Condoleeza Rice for "60 Minutes" and brought up the whole "gee, it must be hard to get a date when you are the secretary of state" deal.
On the other hand, Harvard grad O'Brien has gone after former FEMA chief Michael Brown about the impact of Hurricane Katrina, covered the London terrorism attack in 2005 and was the only broadcast journalist permitted to travel with first lady Laura Bush on her 2003 trip to Moscow.
While Couric wouldn't have been the horse I put in the big race, she hasn't deserved the glee of people — make that mainly men — who seem only too eager to trumpet Couric's ratings decline and label her a loser.
Couric's "CBS Evening News" shot up to first place — a lofty height CBS news hasn't reached in the past 13 years — only to fall back into third place.
Still, CBS says it never believed Couric could continue in the No. 1 slot for long. And they were right. For the third week in a row, the news show has landed in the No. 3 spot.
Although CBS is quick to point out that it is the only network newscast to gain viewers from last year.
Last week, NBC's "Nightly News" averaged 8.8 million viewers, ABC's "World News" had 8 million viewers and CBS had 7.3 million.
In the days before the Sept. 5 launch of CBS News with Couric, CBS News president Sean McManus told reporters that no one expected CBS to be No. 1 overnight.
"I'm much more concerned about the ratings in September 2007 and 2008 than 2006," McManus said back then. "I don't consider this a failure if in three months or six months we're not in first place."
It's almost like he had a crystal ball — or at least a realistic attitude — to sense that people would come and test the waters but might not stick around for the long haul.
McManus has said all the network hoped for was something to build on, and it would appear from the latest ratings they may have been successful in that.
For the week of Oct. 9, CBS increased 6 percent in households from this time a year ago. Even more important for the bottom line is a jump in younger viewers. Comparing the same week last year, CBS gained more than 11 percent in the adults 25-54 demographic and 25 percent in adults 18-49, which is the gold standard for advertisers.
All of this is good news, CBS folks say. I'd still like to see where they might be sitting if the news came on at the more commuter-friendly hour of 7 p.m. — and had O'Brien at the helm.
Yep, I tremble with glee!
That's the whole show in a nutshell.
" Put me on the news and I'll increase your ratings, CBS."
You can only warn the mainstream media that their overt partisanship and bias is going to lose them credibility and viewers.
When they fail to heed what people are really telling them and insist rather on telling the public what to think, then I guess we just get to enjoy their spectacular death spirals.
Enjoy!
There's nothing like the sound of gnashing teeth and celebrities throwing up seeing the latest ratings and job cuts.
Looks like that Olbermann guy is going to gore everybody's cow trying to save his own skin. There is no honor among fools.
Man, THAT'S a trial balloon. Young Soledad must be running for the hills . . .
Out of curiosity I watch her for the first time last night (and the last)
Proving that Democrats can't find good news in any story, This is what she said about the DOW Jones Historical high numbers last night - "It took six weeks for the DOW to go from 10,000 to 11,000 in 199?, BUT it took 7 Years for it to go from 11,000 to 12,000". Never did she mention that we had a little event called the inflated Tech Stock bubble and its burst (both caused by Clinton), and then 9/11 and two wars that followed that.
She followed that up with a comment that she has a hard time finding any good news now days, but she found one good news story which led into a sports story.
The perky one going down??? Time for a trip to visit her colon, I assume! /tacky sexist sarcasm
And more good news from the Drive By Media...
NBC Universal makes $750M in cuts by reducing staff, scripted shows, news budget
NEW YORK (AP) - NBC Universal plans to cut US$750 million in operating expenses by the end of 2007 by eliminating employees, cutting back on scripted shows, and slashing its news budget, according to a report Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.
The moves come as more and more viewers and advertisers gravitate toward new media, NBC Universal chairman Bob Wright told the newspaper. He said the moves would restore the company to double-digit growth next year.
Well, Flavor Flav does have those the whole neck-clock thing going on. Maybe Katie can rock a big Movado looking clock on Friday and try to steal back the ratings....
The era of the big star and egos are over; that's not what people tune in to see anymore. That era is gone -- with the Dan Rathers and Barbara Streisands.
Most people would prefer somebody who's just good -- to an overinflated superego; that's why the Hitlers and the Saddams don't attract a following anymore. That era is gone.
What they need is just competence and ability -- and not more hype and sensationalism. The tragedy is that these people read their own press releases and believe they are as good as their publicists/agents tell them they are.
After they reap their millions, they move on to feed on another carcass.
You gotta start wondering what Flav's nickname would be for Katie. Hopefully, he would come up with something less tiresome than 'Perky'.
Oh wait, didn't she do her colon exam on national television already?
She peaked too early.....
Oh that's good, cruel but good!
Susan, you ignorant slut.
Oh really, Susan?
Katie worked well when she was on morning TV, which is just background filler TV for hotels, restaurants, and airports. Nobody watches anyway, it's just on in the background while people eat breakfast and scan the morning paper.
Now that she's front-and-center on the evening news and people really started watching, the inescapable fact is that she sucks bad.
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