Posted on 06/24/2007 7:37:46 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Despite recent publicity about a ratings disaster for Katie Couric and the "CBS Evening News," the viewership of Brian Williams and the "NBC Nightly News" is plunging much faster than at CBS.
According to Nielsen Media Research, in Couric's first 39 weeks at CBS, she lost 287,000 viewers from the 2006 average, a drop of 4 percent from predecessor Bob Schieffer's audience. During the same period, "Nightly News" lost 533,000 viewers, or 5 percent of its audience.
"If I was at NBC, I'd really be quite nervous about the hundreds of thousands of people that have left my audience," Andrew Tyndall, a consultant who studies the content of network evening newscasts, told the Associated Press.
NBC's audience averaged 10.79 million viewers in the first three months when Williams replaced Tom Brokaw, but it has fallen to 7.66 million in the past three months.
"I, honest to God, couldn't tell you what the ratings are and couldn't tell you that for days on end," Williams told AP. "It really is immaterial in a way. There isn't anything we can do on a given day to tweak."
"It is predictable," he added. "This is why I haven't allowed any champagne toasts in the newsroom when the ratings have been flawless and spectacular and joyous. This is a back-and-forth dogfight."
Nielsen reports ABC's "World News" with Charles Gibson has been the most popular newscast for eight straight weeks, and 15 out of the last 19, with NBC in second place and CBS a distant third.
As WND reported in June 2005, Williams during his newscast compared America's first presidents to the president-elect of Iran, alleged hostage-taker Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying they were "certainly revolutionaries and might have been called terrorists by the British crown."
The concept of “Evening Network News” is going to be obsolete in less than five years.
So who really running the Titanic of Evening news at NBC now Entertainment part who want pay Paris Hilton or hard core news guy probably BOTH
5 years? Just enough time to help elect Hillary next year.
Brian is prettier and wears more makeup.
Can’t happen soon enough.
He doesn’t pay attention to ratings, huh? Sure..........
I'll agree. The age of Walter Cronkite and taking the daily newspaper is obsolete. This is the transitional phase to the age of the internet.
I agree with you. Williams treats his audience like they are toddlers. I always feel my intelligence is insulted watching him and the way he presents the news. One night I am watching and he is talking to to their in-house Doctor and with a straight face the Doctor is telling Williams that suicide is the result of Depression, a new study had just come out, Williams with a ridiculous serious facial expression says really and then asks what can we do. Unreal, I turned the TV off right then and there, I could not take another moment.
Back and forth? I thought it was straight down. The only question is who will get there first.
This is great! And, exactly why I’d much rather sit on the porch watching the sun go down and chat with my husband about our day. I have not watched (or missed) the evening news for even two days a month in years.
In related news: the captain of the Titanic was found with his hand still on the Wheel.
Pray for W and Our Troops
I haven’t watched more than 45 minutes of CBSABCNBC nightly news since Rathergate. Dinosaur media is dying. It’s not just Couric and Williams. It’s the whole paradigm.
Dumb it down and tart it up, Brian. < snicker>
However the good news is that their viewership seems to have stabalised due to a less demanding demographic.
Another effect of talk radio.
Expect everyone to be on board for the fairness doctrine.
HAHAHAHahH....pathetic lefties trying to be normal.
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