He said "ta-ta!"
-PJ
Posted on 09/04/2019 2:09:25 PM PDT by Red Badger
UPDATE September 4, 2019: This blog has been updated with the Nielsen ratings from the week of August 26.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Things are not at all well on CBS Evening News, the flagship evening program for the third-place broadcast network. After making the major transition from CBS This Morning anchor Norah O’Donnell has been floundering in the ratings fight with ABC and NBC by hemorrhaging viewers for the first six weeks, according to the Nielsen ratings.
For all the talk about CBS News head Susan Zirinsky booting the more-balanced Jeff Glor (whose last newscast was May 10) under the guise of low ratings, that move sure didn’t appear to have paid off. Instead, it’s made matters worse.
For O’Donnell’s first week (the week of July 15), TVNewser found that “[t]he ratings results for launch week of the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell were mixed. The broadcast posted audience losses from the comparable week in 2018, and was down slightly from the prior week.”
“Versus the comparable week in 2018,” it was calculated that O’Donnell’s first week at the helm lost 247,000 viewers, or minus five percent of their total viewership. They were also down 13 percent in the critical 25-54 age demographic. That slide was just the beginning of what appeared to be the bottom falling out of the CBS flagship.
The following week (the week of July 22), it was reported that CBS Evening News “was down week-to-week, year-over-year, and fell short of delivering 5 million total viewers.” For the year-over-year, the program had lost 16 percent of its total viewership. 4,736,000 total viewers, down from 5,614,000 when former anchor Jeff Glor was delivering the news.
CBS was also down 17 percent in the critical 25-54 age demographic for that second week.
For the next two weeks (the weeks of July 29 and August 5), O’Donnell continued to lose viewers in the double digits from the show’s year-over-year each week. “Compared to the same week in 2018, ABC was +3% in total viewers, NBC was -6% in total viewers, while the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell struggled yet again, -12% year-over-year,” TVNewser reported for the last week in July.
“CBS Evening News was -11% year-over-year,” TVNewser said of the first week of August.
Those numbers meant O’Donnell continued the trend of failing to break five million total viewers. For the comparable week of July 29, Glor had 5,537,000 to her 4,897,000. And for the first week of August, he clocked in at 5,450,000, while she reeled in 4,860,000.
Things improved for O’Donnell for the week of August 12, if only slightly. For that week, CBS Evening News was only down eight percent from the previous year and managed to pull in over five million viewers (5,132,000 to Glor’s 5,560,000).
It was also the first time since O’Donnell took the helm, that the show didn’t lose double digits in the 25-54 bracket, also only down eight percent year-over-year for the total viewership.
But the slide picked up momentum again for the week of August 19 as O’Donnell lost another 10 percent of total year-over-year and 13 percent from 25-54. Despite that loss, she still managed to have 5,119,000 viewers tune in (Glor had 5,665,000).
With the ratings from the last week of August finally in on Wednesday, it was clear that O'Donnell had not righted the ship and continued to lose viewers year-over-year and closed out the summer with a thud. "CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell fell from the comparable week last year, both in total viewers and among adults 25-54," TVNewser reported. "Versus the same week last year, CBS Evening News was -9% in total viewers and -8% among adults 25-54."
That was more than Glor had lost year-over-year from 2017.
The evening news is no longer a profit center. It’s a propaganda mill subsidized by sports and a handful of profitable prime time shows.
He said "ta-ta!"
-PJ
Wouldn’t know. I only watch the local news cast if some local breaking news or sever weather is occurring or I know they filmed something I was interested in and want to see the actual news segment. Other than that I have no needed to spend 30 minutes watching TV to gr less info than it 10 minutes online.
We have Direct TV satellite, and the NBC and CBS stations are not being delivered because of some contractual disagreements with Direct TV. It has been like this for a few weeks now.............
my thoughts exactly...
The viewership of the Evening News has gotten older and older in the last few decades. Why wait for that program when you can get the latest news on your cellphone?
“Evening News is going the way of the Dodo Bird.”
personally, i haven’t watched evening news for at least 25 years ...
“Who says there’s no good news anymore!?!?”
LOL!
I know Glor. I had no opinion of him either way though he was among, in my opinion, the least dramatic of the 3 network news broadcasts.
Apparently ratings with Glor were falling and he became the sacrificial lamb.
Whatever the reason for falling rating Norah O’Donnell was a poor replacement. One viewing confirms this.
That ratings took a nose dive is no surprise. What's surprising is she was picked in the first place. What were they thinking?
“Our local station is over a hundred miles away in Mobile Alabama so they have nothing on that we watch as far as news goes..........”
Oakland and Gay/Poo infested Frisco are an hour+ away and San Jose is another 30 minutes away.
Neither area has any reality with any human not living in those areas with the stations.
My Wunderground Weather is on 24/7 via the tablet 2 feet away from my Lazy Boy.
As you and others posted, Free Republic has the real news.
So there is zero need for any fake or non relevant news.
At last......CCRM is vindicated
I also only watch the local news. All of the networks (and I include Fox in this) have a preset news formula. Everything they do is framed around it.
It’s hard for them to make comments about the weather or a local event. Unless they try to put it into the bigger context. It’s hard for them to blame Trump for a house burning or a flood. But of course they will always blame global warming for everything.
They should just start the national news by saying everything bad in the news today was caused by global warming and Trump. Anything good in the news was brought to you by liberalism, socialism and communism.
Evening news is a glorified newspaper. News that happens at 10:00 am is already old news at 6:30
Hope they bring back Glor.
I totally agree with you.
Glor was the best of the recent CBS anchors.
He was fair and respectful, as was evidenced by his interviews with PDJT.
The evening news is no longer a profit center. It’s a propaganda mill subsidized by sports and a handful of profitable prime time shows.
*********
Sports subsidizes fake news? What’s more important — sports, or America?
I don’t think the network news divisions were ever a profit center. Their costs were always hidden.
I didn’t watch even one second, of course.
But for all of us who missed it here is the transcript of all 7 weeks:
Trump is a liar, millions of voters in swing states now oppose Trump,Trump crimes passed over earlier but Nadler to re-investigate them, impeachment cries from everyday Americans growing louder, Trump a bumbling senile President....
I’ll bet a nickel that covered most of it, over and over each night.
CBS news has gone all lib.
They don’t even try to fake impartiality anymore.
I suspect CBS believed Glor was too middle of the road and in order to attract viewers they needed someone who could narrate every story as opinion and high drama which seems to be the hallmark of all tv anchors.
They're looking for hysteria. O’Donnell fits the bill but doesn't have the 'likeability' factor of other anchors.
I’ll shorten it for you, “Orange Man Bad!”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.