Katie came in 3rd on Friday - Going down fast

[leftyladyfrommo]

I don't know why I am so interested in this but I am. I thought CBS was making a terrible mistake when I heard who they had picked.

Tuesday - 9.1
Wesdnesday - 7.0
Thursday - 6.5
Friday 4.9 (came in last of 3 News shows.) I expect it to go lower. I think they will lose the people they had watching the news.

NBC Football beat everyone on Friday nite

15.1/23 share

ABC 9-11 show 8.3/12 share

CSB 9-11 doc. 8.2/12 share

[Janice325]

1. I betcha Olbermann will comment on this tonight!

All I can say is "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Nikki Stone 1]

2. She's like nails on a chalkboard for me

Saw her briefly on 60 minutes and turned the channel.

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. I know. I tried but I couldn't stand to even watch it was so bad.

I know - I know. But I feel sorry for her. She should never have agreed to do that show.

[Nikki Stone 1]

7. Yeah, I wonder what CBS was thinking?

They should have thrown in the newroom towel completely and just run "America's Top Model" at 6:00.

[Lexingtonian]

4. I know I can't watch her

It's painful watching a political naif without real international experiences or historical sense reading news that is mostly political. Jennings was so much the opposite, a man of the world and knowledgeable of the whole globe.

OTOH, I really can't watch Schieffer and Gibson. They're so f-ing provincial and smug so much of the time, it's like a time machine to the Republican version of the Fifties or early Sixties. It's great marketing, catering to that narrow band of people that are their core audience with its narrow reference frame, but most Third World countries have national news broadcasts that are smarter and more cosmopolitan and global in their outlook.

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. I liked Scheiffer. And I watch Gibson now if I am going to watch

evening news. I don't have cable and I can't get NBC. But my6 favorite is Lehrer/.

[Avalux]

6. Yep. Here's the thing.

I admit I do not watch CBS, ABC or NBC news on a regular basis (in fact rarely), and if I'm going to watch, it would be CBS (or was). The CBS Evening News is a tradition in my family; has been for years reaching all the way before even before Cronkite. But that's changed now, my parents have no interest in watching Katie Couric, so she's lost them. And I bet there are a lot of other people out there who can say the same thing about their families, parents, grandparents, etc.

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. True - CBS was in third but gaining with Bob Scheiffer

I think they will lose most of their base now - news lovers aren't going to want to spend their time watching Couric trying to be entertaining.

I always watch CBS - now I watch ABC.

I don't understand why they couldn't have picked one of the really good women reporter/news persons. There were a lot that probably would have been just fine.

I just don't understand the new management at CBS - I feel like he is just destroying CBS. News. Some of their other stuff is still OK

[Nikki Stone 1]

9. Maybe it's an excuse for ceasing to run news broadcasts completely?

Now that news has to turn a profit, Katie's numbers will swiftly make CBS news a big loss. Maybe the whole point is to dismantle the real journalism being done.

:tinfoilhat:

[Impashund Ubique]

10. Does Evening News even have a future worth worrying about?

I think that as long as the generations that grew up without computers, while ardently devouring news delivered by Cronkite, remain around .. there is a potential to maintain the viewership that the three combined networks currently enjoy.

However, once those who are 20 or younger - not to mention that even many who are older prefer alternative methods of gathering news - reach the age where they would be expected to form the primary constituency of network news, the deadline for the survival of these evening news broadcasts should come (and I'm being generous here). Evening news is basically a recital of major news headlines; google, yahoo news and numerous other online resources do a better job of providing those headlines and even give the reader an opportunity to dig deeper into stories of interest. Once Vlogs catch fire and are diligently produced by big news sources, the visual component of newscasts will be covered too. NY Times is doing a good job with them. The only difference would be that while these news broadcasts tell us what news is worth noting, in getting our news online we can use our own editorial judgment to see what's worth our time. Not too shabby, huh? Except it promotes, perhaps, the acquisition of self-selected, self-affirming news - which Fox already does a decent job of ;)

So, Katie Couric's success (or lack there of) is perhaps as irrelevant as that of Brian Williams.

I have to say, though, that while Katie did adopt quite a serious style to show that she is more than "perky," her failure is in the substance department. The stuff being reported on the newscast is just too soft, as everyone has noted. Someone needs to tell her that, perhaps - is there no one at CBS who would dare to point that out to the new Managing Editor of the show?

[Lex]

11. Once she had on Rush Limbaugh to give his "viewpoint" (wtf?) on things

then I decided right then never to tune into her newscast.

Who's next to give their viewpoint? Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps? Anne Coulter? The head of the KKK?

Some people (racists, homophobes, xenophobes) don't deserve to be given a national platform and legitimized by network news shows.

I'm done with Katie and her stories about Tomkat's baby and the like too. Blech.

[AndyA]

12. Katie Couric will go down like a rock.

CBS should have known better. They will be forever trying to find a place to "stick her" where she will not drag the network down. First the Evening News, then off to 60 Minutes, but they won't want her. Then perhaps to a late night format? Nah...they've got Letterman. Ooh, maybe after Letterman.

Lots of people watching TV then...

[tiptoe]

13. Not watching CBS news, once "learning" freedom of speech is a privilege.

Morans.

Perhaps Ms Couric will someday "earn" a Right to Free Speech and speak her own mind instead of the mind of her masters.

[originalpckelly]

14. Bob Schieffer brought them up in the ratings by 200,000 viewers.

The people who watch the evening news are serious, and they want to see a serious news person. If they want tabloid crap they'll turn on the 24 hour channels. CBS will eventually realize this.

He may have had Republican ties, but I honestly had no idea from watching his broadcasts. Just as many Americans probably didn't know that Walter Cronkite was a liberal.

If there is to be a sort of oligopoly in this country concerning news outlets, the reporters at those outlets should strive to be independent and maintain distance from petty partisanship.