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.