CBS' Couric slides to No. 3

[hyphenate]

CBS' Couric slides to No. 3
By Peter Johnson, USA TODAY

Katie Couric kicked off this week in territory unfamiliar to her but familiar to the CBS Evening News: Her broadcast finished in third place Monday. Last week, in the first few days after the former Todaystar's much-hyped debut as anchor, Evening News dominated both NBC Nightly News and ABC World News in the ratings.

But on Monday — a big news day because of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 — viewers returned NBC Nightly News to its regular first-place berth. Nightly News drew 8.3 million viewers, followed by World News with 7.9 million and CBS with 7.5 million. (By comparison, when she premiered Sept. 5, Couric drew 13.6 million viewers.)

During the lead-up to Couric's launch, executives from the three networks predicted viewers would sample the newscasts in coming weeks, that early ratings could fluctuate and that clear lines might not be drawn for months, because viewer habits change slowly.

<snip>

CBS News president Sean McManus says he's not concerned with Monday's loss and plans no immediate changes on the broadcast, although some are probably inevitable because CBS is experimenting. "To start to jump to conclusions after one week I don't think is very prudent," McManus says.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-09-12-couric-ratings_x.htm

[JI7]

1. i haven't watched her at all

but my understanding is that she isn't really doing evening news as it has been done which is a summary of major events of the day.

all this stuff of getting interviews with Limbaugh, doesn't want to do on the scene reporting etc.

they should have given the job to Christianne Amanpour.

[VolcanoJen]

3. I'm an ABC World News Tonight gal, but I Tivo'd Katie's debut week

I like Katie. I really do, and I feel the attacks on her have been a little sexist, and a little hysterical, at times.

Still, her version of "CBS Evening News" was more "Dateline" than Walter Kronkite. I don't dig on the format.

I want hard news, and I want it in 30 minutes. There's no sense of urgency and seriousness in Katie's anchoring thus far.

But I'll give it a little time. I hated CNN's "The Situation Room" upon its debut, but shortly thereafter, Hurricane Katrina hit, and they allowed you to see everything happening at the same time, exactly when that was what you craved.

So, I'm willing to take a "wait-and-see" view in terms of "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric."

[baldingrockwarlord2]

8. I like her too, BUT......

I like Katie Couric also, but NOT where she's at. It's hard to take the news from her after she has spent a career doing Today Show fluff content, which is where I think she belongs. I want a stronger solid hard news anchor person and I too think Christine Amenpour (sp?) would have been a more solid choice. Maybe not as "cute, perky and likeable" as Couric, but more qualified and trustable in a hard news format. But perhaps CBS doesn't care about being trusted any more and just wants to be "liked". It's as if CBS News division has jumped the shark. Bob Schieffer signed off one night a couple weeks ago hinting in his own way that they are now casting a "wider net" to bring us more "different" types of news stories. Translation: Softball practice and spin. Fluff stories that have no business on a nightly news broadcast. It's like they are doing those soft "Sunday Morning" non news stories at least once a night now. Given the fact that there are only approximately 18 minutes of content in a half hour news show, now there is even less than that on the CBS Evening news. Sad.

[VolcanoJen]

10. It's hardly Katie's fault that she couldn't show off her hard-news chops..

... on "Today."

I mean, isn't that a production issue? "Today" is only hard news in the first half-hour. Katie always covered that aspect admirably, before being thrown into the cooking and fashion segments that make up the bulk of morning network programming.

Re-watching the "Today" coverage of 9/11 as it happened on MSNBC yesterday, I realized that Katie is up to the task.

I'll give her a few weeks to tweak the news magazine format, at least.

[baldingrockwarlord2]

12. you make some great points there.

I certainly can't argue with what you just said. Only that, after spending at least a decade doing what she has, I have a real problem accepting the news from her because of where she's been.

Kinda like a country artist trying to do heavy metal or vise versa. Just because you can doesn't mean that you should.

[jmowreader]

13. It's not Katie's fault ratings are down...or is it?

The problem is the format they've got her in.

The evening news is the wrong time to do a news magazine. People don't want it then. They want a good solid 30-minute block of local news, a good solid 30-minute block of national news, and a game show. The people who want a news magazine will wait until 8pm for Keith or O'Lielly.

Katie Couric does hard news well, so they should drop this "6pm Today Show" thing they've got her doing and just have her read news for 30 minutes.

[Blasphemer]

18. She is responsible for the new format

That was part of her deal when joining CBS - she would be instrumental in shaping their new version of the evening news.

[jmowreader]

35. Oh. Well...in that case they'll fire her ass within the month

Because letting Katie Couric drag CBS down to last place probably wasn't what they intended when they hired her.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. ...and a game show.

:patriot:

[misanthrope]

28. For some of us...

..."cute, perky and likeable" is just plain nauseating.

[misanthrope]

27. But she brought you baby Suri...

...What more could you want from your evening news?

That supposed quake in the Gulf of Mexico last week was actually Ed Murrow spinning in his grave.

[Libby2]

20. Boy, you've got that right.

I would love to see Christianne Amanpour as a major anchor.

[aquart]

2. Experiments don't matter if no one watches. I won't watch her.

Can't stand her voice. Can't stand her sucking up to George.

[anitar1]

5. So true, she loves to suck up to the Pugs. I will NOT

watch her. I liked Schieffer. I do not want a magazine show. But I must say that I have never liked Couric.

[tsuki]

15. She's sucking up 15 million, and you expect her to be unbias?

:rofl:

[Chiyo-chichi]

19. RE: Can't stand her sucking up to George.

Yes. She ABSOLUTELY did. That's why I grew to dislike her. It's not sexist. It's not hysterical. It's also not journalism.

[Cha]

24. Right! Is it sexist and hysterical if

I don't like her cause she's gopig suck up and rottweiler when she interviews Michael Moore?

I'm thinking she turned mediawhore..the worst kind.

[Chiyo-chichi]

25. And it was not just with Moore and Dean.

It was practically every day in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5503815

[Cha]

29. Yeah, and Dean And I had a feeling

it wasn't just what I had read from DU. Thanks for this link, soonerhoosier, we need it on this thread.

So cbs hired themselves a bona fide Million $$ Mediawhore! Well, congratulations cbs, we'll see how history treats ya.

And Good Luck Dan Rather with your 1 hour HDTV show for Mark Cuban!

http://www.hd.net/pressrelease.html?2006-07-11-01.html

[BuyingThyme]

4. Bronze.

[countmyvote4real]

6. Stoned dude laugh "ha ha ha"

CBS would be the laughing stock of MSM if not for ABC/Disney's fake public service tribue to 9/11. How do you balance a Presidential BJ with a MSM BJ for a straw President?

I don't know. Paging Monica, Charlie, George, Diane, Brian, Tim and everybody else in MSM on any network, except for KO.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. That's what they get for trying to make CBS News so Foxy

!!

[Selatius]

9. I haven't watched these three programs on ABC, NBC, or CBS in years

They've become whitewashed propaganda organs. They have made the technique of propaganda by omission into a fine art form.

[6000eliot]

11. I don't watch any mainstream news,

but I think Couric is a fucking moron, and I hope the viewers find that out. It isn't a gender thing either, because I've seen that Williams guy on talk shows, and he's a fucking idiot, too.

[xchrom]

14. outside of olberman -- i don't watch personality driven

news shows.

what made murrow or kronkite great was that they turned their personalities to the SERVICE of bringing us the news.

in this contemporary era of sanitized news -- it's the personality that's important -- and that's not what i'm looking for.

[Chimichurri]

16. Wow this happened a lot faster then I thought it would. What it

says to me is that people tuned in hoping to get something noone else was offering and CBS failed to deliver. Maybe this is a good sign that people do want to be informed. Too bad Couric didn't seize this opportunity of having the eyes of over 13 million people by coming out swinging. She could have captivated her audience with hard hitting news items instead of dumbing down the dialogue.

[Blasphemer]

17. Yes, I'm surprised too

I thought they would get a few weeks before the slide started. I sampled the first night and I thought it was pretty bad so it's good to see that several million others were also unimpressed.

[eccles12]

21. I am not a Katie fan but her news show is by far the best in my opinion.

It is refreshing to tune in and not see the identical story with almost the same script that is being presented on the other outlets at the same time. It is refreshing to be able to get more than just 15-30 seconds of talking points. At least an issue gets a minute or more to go more in depth. She could cut out the newstainment portions for my money and just stick to important issues that are not being covered by the other networks.

[Chimichurri]

22. There is so much news out there - she can find plenty of riveting

news items noone else is talking about and get her journalists to do some real reporting. I'm glad you enjoy it but I don't watch news for talking points.

[WinkyDink]

23. I simply don't like HER, and wouldn't watch if she were as serious as the

Black Death.

[symbolman]

26. I CANNOT STAND

that Loony Looking Cheshire CAT LEER that she's been sticking in my face for so many years.

She literally looks insane to me. I once joked that they should use CLOWNS to do the news, since all of the Smiling during such pain is SO INAPPROPRIATE..

"8,000 people PERISHED today as Mud slides continue to Pummel a Village in India.." GRIN! Make Lame Jokes with CoAnchors: "Well, Bill, Let's see if SoCal is going to get PUMMELED with Rains today, keeping Americans from attending some SPORTS event that if they can't attend will cause enough tears to Bring down Barbara Streisand's 60 million dollar Home!!" GRIN, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

She's toast.

[npincus]

30. I don't want 'opinion' on my news broadcast

I can watch that on cable 24/7....The "Free Speech" segement sucks, as do over-produced 60-minutes-style features.

I believe that's why people are not watching. I watched the first night and felt my intelligence was being insulted. Message to CBS: It's the news, Stupid.

[Kahuna]

32. Having Limpballs on was a huge error in judgment. It's a wonder

she didn't realize she'd be viewed as an extension of the GOP. That's what she gets.

[Kansas Wyatt]

33. CBS: Smoke her ass and put Keith in there.

As he displayed the other night, he is obviously more qualified for the job.

[warrens]

34. She's really tanking...here's a good look at her miserable show

There was a revealing, if unintentionally ironic, moment during Katie Couric's first week on the job as host of the CBS Evening News. It surrounded the segment called "Free Speech," which featured commentaries from invited guests. "Expressing your opinion is very American," Couric told viewers, stressing: "Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion." On Thursday night, Couric welcomed right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh who taped his 90-second contribution and took a very different tact. He suggested during his "Free Speech" commentary that the wrong kind of free speech (i.e., criticizing the war in Iraq) undermines patriotism and drags down the morale of U.S. troops. So much for CBS' attempt at a democratic dialogue. In fact, CBS' ill-conceived decision to include Limbaugh was just one of countless media missteps associated with her debut.

While ABC's blatant attempt to rewrite the history of 9-11 with its widely criticized "docudrama" likely generated more cries of protest, the Couric story, viewed as a package, was almost as upsetting in terms of the collective media arrogance on display. The news anchor's public launch perfectly captured so much of what's wrong with today's corporate media, watching the press' incessant, flood-the-zone coverage of Couric, a millionaire celebrity journalist who in her first week on the job pitched softball questions to president Bush and decided Limbaugh -- who claims "what's good for Al Qaeda is good for the Democratic Party" -- represents "civil" discourse and deserved a special invitation to appear on the CBS Evening News.

On the eve of Couric's debut, the Los Angeles Times was right to report her move from NBC to CBS "has been covered with the kind of intense scrutiny and speculation usually reserved for prospective presidential candidates." Left unsaid was the fact that the Times itself published nearly two dozen articles and columns mentioning Couric during the month surrounding her debut. There's no doubt CBS pushed Couric with a shameless zeal. The FishBowlNY blog noted that on Couric's first day, there were 40 separate mentions of her on CBSNews.com. The former Tiffany network reportedly spent $10 million marketing and promoting Couric's launch, which along with her annual salary of $15 million, meant CBS spent nearly $25 million this year in making its anchor switch. (Four days after her much-hyped debut, the CBS Evening News was back in third place in the ratings race.)

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200609120003