Tuned In, TV Blog, Television Reviews, James Poniewozik, TIME

May 5, 2008 12:25

Not All the Bad News is for Katie

Posted by James Poniewozik | Comments (1) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

There's been a lot of attention, here and elsewhere, about the poor ratings and dismal prospects of the CBS Evening News and Katie Couric. But before we pin all the problems of TV news on Katie, it's worth noting that the numbers are bad, and getting worse, for all three networks collectively. Advertising Age surveys the state of the 6:30 news shows (subscription required) and notes that, for all three broadcasts, audiences are down around 1.2 million viewers over the past year. Any given week, the three shows draw just over 20 million viewers, down from close to 30 million several years back.

Now, if you're an exec at NBC or ABC, you'll note that that million-plus drop is roughly the amount of viewers that CBS has lost in the past year, and hope the story ends there. But the problem is not Katie's alone. After all, if she lost so many viewers, in a healthy market for the evening news, some competitor would be gaining. But they're not.

A lot of TV-biz reporting, which obsesses on the relative ratings horserace among the newscasts, ignores this bigger picture and has spun the loss for CBS as a "win" for Brian Williams or Charlie Gibson. Really, the story is the same as it's been for years, and there's no good news for anyone at 6:30 these days.

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Reader Comments (1)

Lulu Lulu:

SSShhhh...James, hush! You're violating the established order.

--Women can't run a national evening news broadcast.

--Women don't get elected to public office.

--Women won't sell tickets at the box office.

--Women can't be in charge of major corporations.

--Women can't be authority figures...they remind us [men? us] too much of our henpecking mothers and nagging wives.

Don't question the system, James. It's there for a reason. What reason? Shhh...to tell you would violate the established order!

Posted by Lulu Lulu | May 5, 2008 2:42 PM

About Tuned In

James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or--once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers--in your dreams themselves.