Couric’s ratings: It gets worse
Remember a year or so ago, when Katie Couric’s ratings were so bad that … well, let’s let the NYT’s Bill Carter tell the story:
[T]he “CBS Evening News” recorded the worst five-night run in its history last week. The program attracted an average of only 5.4 million viewers for the week, which a CBS spokeswoman, Sandy Genelius, said appeared to be the lowest it had ever received. That number was down from about 5.6 million the week before and 6 million two weeks ago.
That’s from a story dated April 23, 2008. Here we are a year later and … Couric averaged 5,380,000 viewers last week, according to this weekly posting from TV Newser.
I’m not a big ratings expert like Howard Kurtz, but isn’t 5,380,000 lower than 5,400,000? Why aren’t people talking about this?
As we have seen, Couric’s ratings lagged all year, even through the alleged buzz she got for the Sarah Palin interviews.
After the election, after the stock market meltdown, her ratings began creeping back up, cementing her position as The News Anchor America Turns to When the News Is Over™.
That prompted a massive PR push that too many people who should have known better participated in. (An almost tearfully clueless last gasp of that push can be seen here. How does a reporter write about a show’s ratings without, you know, looking at the ratings?)
Most humiliating line in the TV Newser blurb: “Year-to-year, [CBS] just maintained its demo delivery.”
“Just maintaining” the lowest ratings ever in the demo—there’s a silver lining.
———–
Previously in Hitsville:
Confidential to Tom Shales and Howard Kurtz: Katie Couric’s ratings are in the tank again!
Couric Watch: Ratings plummet!
Paging Katie Couric!
Dear Tom Shales
Katie Couric—Where America Turns When the News Is Over™
Katie Couric, the News Anchor That Nobody Watches™
Couric and CBS, lying
Should CBS jettison its news division?
Katie Couric’s ratings hit a new low
Howie hearts Katie
Kurtz the lame
Couric, the debate, and the vaporization of CBS News
Katie Couric, a year later
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It’s official, Bill:
My mom is the only person who watches Katie Couric.
Correction: My mom started watching Brian Williams months ago.
Ah, but have you heard her sing? If she’d Autotune the News every night I’s watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBb4cjjj1gI
Wow typo city! I think I meant to say “If she’d Autotune the News every night I’D watch.”
Two questions come to mind. First: CBS still has news?? Second: Who is Katie Couric?
If she’d autoerotically asphyxiate herself…
No, I still wouldn’t watch.
In regards to who watches her anymore, that’s where it gets worse.
As I’ve said before, talking about the demo I find slightly distasteful, because sometimes people sound ageist when they do.
That said, it does matter in the terms that, ultimately, Sumner Redstone has Les Moonves there to care about. And in *those* terms, Couric has 1.6 million viewers under the age of 55.
[…] Couric’s ratings: It gets worse Confidential to Tom Shales and Howard Kurtz: Katie Couric’s ratings are in the tank again! Couric Watch: Ratings plummet! Paging Katie Couric! Dear Tom Shales Katie Couric—Where America Turns When the News Is Over™ Katie Couric, the News Anchor That Nobody Watches™ Couric and CBS, lying Should CBS jettison its news division? Katie Couric’s ratings hit a new low Howie hearts Katie Kurtz the lame Couric, the debate, and the vaporization of CBS News Katie Couric, a year later […]
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