Posted on 06/03/2007 10:06:52 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
June 3, 2007 -- As you can see from the chart above, Katie Couric’s first nine months at CBS aren’t exactly going as planned - in fact, she’s costing CBS an arm and a leg and a whole lot more for each viewer she hangs onto in her shrinking audience.
And last week the $15 million- a-year anchor got even more expensive....."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You would need to compare the morning shows to get an accurate measure of the cost to CBS. If taking Couric off of the Today show improved CBS’s relative position in the morning, then CBS may be coming out ahead.
Couric did fine in the mornings.
She couldn’t pay me $1000.00 a night to watch her!
What cracks me up is that I’ve now seen the complete 360.
In the seventies, there was an ongoing battle because the entertainment division wanted to take over the news department, arguing that they could get better ratings if they used ‘modern programming techniques’. CBS management in those days said the news department would always remain independent because it was a part of the institution, and fulfilled the network’s committment to provide public service. Making money with it, they said, wasn’t what it was there for.
Fifteen years later, the ‘independent institution’ was turned over to the programming department, with their seventies argument articulated as the reason.
Now, with the flaws of having news programming managed by entertainment people clearly evident, management is once again talking about how ratings are unimportant, it’s the institution that counts.
Pretty darn funny.
Maybe if she hadn’t started off by ending her first appearance saying “Death to America!”
Hilarious, actually.
When was the last time a network executive had an original idea, I wonder.
They don't call them "suits" for nothing...
The business model for network television has been to use its monopoly of the distribution system to make money. That monopoly has been undercut repeatedly in the last twenty years. First cable, then satellites, now high speed internet.
With the arrival of an HD quality fiber line at most homes in America within the next ten years, the monopoly will be completely gone. Anybody who can afford server time will be able to be a programming provider. Servers, and thus server time will just keep getting cheaper. The nets will still have their brand names, but that’s about it.
Sadly, the loss of the income associated with the monopoly will also mean that budgets for shows will continue to decline. Look for an era when you have your choice of two thousands programs, almost all of which are low-budget reality shows. Think ‘nationwide public access channel’.
Then.... somewhere around the end of the next decade... somebody will come up with the idea of selling high quality programming on a pay-per-view basis, and a whole new era will begin.
Bob hope got suspended for a similar line that involved doubling the use of lipstick about that time, too.
OMG! Replace her with ROSIE, yeah, that’s the ticket!
I worked on CBS's anniversary special in '78. The celebration went on for a week, with a special every night, ending with a three-hour epic on Saturday. The capper for that show was a wonderful monologue about past and future narrated by 'uncle Walt'. They'd hired Leonard Bernstein to do the music, and he came up with a score that was absolutely amazing, tracking the narration perfectly, full of swells at the crucial moment, just a special piece of work. I did the mix between the dialogue and music and played it for half a dozen folks, and every time they, and I choked up at the end. Major emotional moment.
So, a half dozen of the network suits showed up to view the piece, and I played it to them. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Then, the senior executive in the room turned to the guy alongside him and said, 'what do you think?' That guy turned to the guy next to him and asked the same question, and at that point I realized two things:
1. The question was going down the line in reverse order by price of suit.
2. Nobody wanted to go on record as expressing an opinion, so they were going to dump it on the lowest ranking guy.
And.... sure enough... they got down to the guy who'd been in the mail room two weeks before, and he... after frantically looking around to see if there was somebody else he could pass the decision off to, finally said, 'I think the music's too loud'. Having gotten that crisis solved, they all trooped out.
And the show aired with Bernstein's music mixed as background instead of as a score. All the drama was lost, all the magic was lost, but somewhere an 'executive in charge of lunch fetching' was happy because they'd taken his suggestion and the rest of them were happy because they hadn't had to take the risk of expressing an opinion.
That's my suit story. Saw it happen a lot.
It’s too bad that Brit Hume wasn’t listed...he’d be by far rated miles over those lib loon bozos....
So, 8% of the US watches the Evening News now?
Wow! I watched it, then called in my kids for them to see it, then watched it again when the wife came in! Man I ain’t never seen something like that and I watch Discovery and History a lot!
BTW... Who were we talking about?? /s
Thanks again for postin that link!
Maybe then the people at those New York City studios will decide to make their product more fair and balanced.
An important life lesson...even the King Of the Jungle can have a tough day out on the hustings.
Best regards,
What interests me, aside from the obvious, is what sort of communications and thinking went on amongst the buffalo (or whatever they were). We tend to view all these animals as pretty stupid and unable to use language in the sense that humans do. But I think this video sort of gives lie to that notion. The buffalo response to the initial attack cannot be considered an instinctive reaction. How did the big guy round up his troops so quickly and effectively?
ML/NJ
There is a near universal species response to the distress call of a juvenile. Even though you can not hear it in the video, it was most likely the trigger for the response of the herd.
Cape Africa Buffalo are notorious for their nasty mean personality.
Even when mortally wounded they will still find the time and energy to charge and kill their assailant(s).
Best regards,
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