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Why Doesn’t Obama Ban Iranian Press TV? by Kenneth R. Timmerman
The Case of CH2M HILL: $2 Billion in Crony Stimulation by Rusty Weiss
The Truth about George Soros by AIM Staff
Lifting the Veil on WikiLeaks by AIM Staff
The Truth about Al-Jazeera English by Cliff Kincaid
Reaganomics and Obamanomics in the Media and in Reality by Malcolm A. Kline, Don Irvine and Spencer Irvine
How State Budget Battles Could Mean More Criminals Back on the Streets by Michael Tremoglie
Radical Muslims, Environmentalists and the Green Jihad by Mark Musser
Russian-Backed Propaganda Networks Claim Obama is a CIA Agent by Cliff Kincaid
Media Conceal True Nature of Flash Mob Racial Violence by John T. Bennett
NBC’s Mitchell Should Resign Over Telling Gaddafi’s Lies (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) by Cliff Kincaid
CASA de Maryland: The Illegals’ ACORN by James Simpson
Special Report
The Newswire
Take AIM Podcast
CBS News Chairman: ‘Evening News Isn’t Broken, It’s Incredible’
TV Newser reports that incoming CBS News chairman Jeff Fager tried to rally the troops at an employee town hallwhen he made the following comments about the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”
There’s plenty of reason to be proud our evening newscast. It is at least as good as the competition and more often than not – it’s better. But I have heard people say the evening news is a broken model–a broken model with more than 20 million Americans watching CBS, NBC or ABC every night? Most people don’t watch more than one night a week so more than 50 million Americans watching in a week? That’s not broken…that’s incredible.
Fager may be right on the current viewership of the three major broadcast networks but those numbers are down substantially over the last 20 years.
Technically the model may not be broken since broadcast news still trumps cable news viewership but it is definite need of repair as ratings continue to sink, especially at CBS where Fager has to make decision on whether or not to Couric’s contract.
Fager is putting on a good face for the employees who have suffered from the damage wrought by Dan Rather’s Bush National Guard memo gate scandal, layoffs as the news business changed during the internet era and Couric’s poor ratings which hit a ten year low on more than one occasion last year.
Call me crazy but somehow though putting on a happy face doesn’t exactly seem like a good stance to take when you are about to enter contract negotiations with your $15 million anchor.
Here are the figures on just how far the evening news ratings have dropped.
Broadcast Network Evening News Season Average Viewership
| ABC | CBS | NBC | |
| Season | Viewers (million) | Viewers (million) | Viewers (million) |
| 1991 – 1992 | 13.63 | 11.92 | 11.15 |
| 1992 – 1993 | 13.84 | 12.68 | 11.65 |
| 1993 – 1994 | 13.03 | 11.66 | 11.62 |
| 1994 – 1995 | 12.68 | 10.32 | 10.31 |
| 1995 – 1996 | 11.62 | 9.38 | 10.60 |
| 1996 – 1997 | 10.77 | 9.20 | 10.91 |
| 1997 – 1998 | 10.13 | 10.12 | 10.68 |
| 1998 – 1999 | 10.23 | 9.13 | 10.23 |
| 1999 – 2000 | 9.82 | 8.40 | 10.25 |
| 2000 – 2001 | 9.23 | 8.52 | 9.90 |
| 2001 – 2002 | 9.85 | 8.62 | 10.26 |
| 2002 – 2003 | 9.58 | 8.01 | 10.25 |
| 2003 – 2004 | 9.24 | 7.55 | 9.98 |
| 2004 – 2005 | 8.96 | 7.06 | 9.58 |
| 2005 – 2006 | 8.12 | 7.41 | 8.99 |
| 2006 – 2007 | 8.36 | 6.74 | 8.40 |
| 2007 – 2008 | 8.18 | 6.16 | 8.52 |
| 2008 – 2009* | 8.60 | 6.71 | 9.28 |
| Y/Y % Change | 5.15% | 8.95% | 8.85% |
| Y/Y # Change | 0.421 | 0.551 | 0.754 |
*2008-9 season data is through 2/8/09, all other seasons are Sept-Sept.
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
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About the author
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.
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6 Comments for CBS News Chairman: ‘Evening News Isn’t Broken, It’s Incredible’
This with a countinually growing population. They are HISTORY!
Broadcast news is over….what ever happened to critical investigative journalism ??? DUH….what is so hard to figure out about this ??
Until they get back to this….they will shrivel….and deservedly so !
Does the Obamedia think the people are stupid. The whole world, incl. USA, is dealing with a much more informed and educated population than ever before. Even if people like in Egypt only have a 3rd grade education they can understand the unlimited current world wide news !!!
Getting 30 minutes of evening news is OVER folks. Get rid of Couric — she is a dud !! Gone. Passe. Boring. Patsy. Bought off by Ob ama.
Broadcast news = Al Jazeera….both filtered, manipulated, masking the real issues, not educational for the people. Some really great accurate historical information & background of what has built up to the current news would be helpful…… Inaccurate politically slanted news is not needed or desired. Just shut down broadcast news and PBS. Free market should always rule. Obamao gonna cram his propaganda down our throats !
Evemning news isnt broken its damaged beyond repair and should be completly scrapped
The graph is instructional, but not complete. Juxtaposed with it should be complete disclosure of the company income. As with the failing newspapers being kept afloat by the NYT, I’d be willing to wager that the viewing public numbers decline does not matter to the management and staff at CBS because they have funding that offsets viewership and sales promotion losses. It would be interesting to see the origins of that funding. But, that would take some investigative journalism. Alas, I forget! Such reporting is now extinct in the United States.
The key understanding regarding the Dan Rather affair was the biased intent of the management and staff. I don’t believe for a minute he was operating without supervision. CBS news does not care about balanced or factual news content.
Thank God for the Internet.
I’d be interested in seeing the drop in viewing from 1980, when CNN went on the air. The decline from ’80 to ’90 might be greater than in the following years.
Used to be, one had no choice but to get their “news” from one of the broadcast channels. This is no longer the case, and one can be as informed or mis-informed as they choose to be. Since younger people tend to not pay any attention to what is happening around them, this also plays a part in the numbers. I don’t watch broadcast television, as I prefer unfiltered news. I can make my own decisions, and don’t need someone else telling me what I see and know to be factual.