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.
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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.
On the great retro style Ellery Queen series with David Wayne and Jim Hutton (1975-76) the father said:"It says here in the paper that a television network is going to experiment with having a news program each evening at 6:00. It will never work. The American people will never stand for it. Seeing what's on the news on TV at the dinner hour! They'll get indigestion!"
That would be admitting they made a mistake.
You’re probably right.
However, Glor was quite likable and thoroughly professional.
I will not be watching O’Donnell. She is just another mistaken choice by CBS which has been struggling for many years, both in their morning program as well as their evening anchor chair.
Bitch is biased and a hack.
Unwatchable.
Be like having juan williams presenting news cept norah is more manly.
Thanks. Does anyone know the true origin of "Orange Man Bad"? Was it in a comic, a graphic meme, or where? Anything not from Airplane,Caddyshack or Animal House is difficult for me.
LOL!!!
Pinko Cronkite was pulling 20+ million back in 1980.
See B.S.
Fake News
“CBS Evening News was -11% year-over-year,” TVNewser said of the first week of August.
..
and that’s the way it is. Good Nite.
Norah is a MEAN girl that doesn’t have a NICE smile.
Thank you. I finally know.
Once upon a time, say 1980, the Big Three had about 35 to 40 millions viewers. Now they fight over dwindling number of people in a smaller and smaller pie. They truly have become Irrelevant.
-——They truly have become Irrelevant.——
Hillary won the popular vote.
There are more of then then there are of us. Ad buyers still support the metworks because of thaat simple fact.
Ignore that fact at our peril
Do not rationalize it away
I don’t have a TV, but was visiting relatives in July, the first week Norah O’Donnell was on. Had to spend a week watching her every evening. I’d never seen her before, but knew her ratings would be bad. Comes across as cold and mean.
Both O’Donnell and Couric were always lightweight airheads. Pretty to look at, but vacuous upstairs (and I don’t mean in the bedroom).
Or Megan Kelly 2.0
But the new boss is a woman and thus infallible.....
im sorry..and ill probably get flamed for this, but people dont like listening to women discuss serious issues and politics. They’ve tried this female anchor thing over and over and it just doesn’t work. It is what it is..
The Weather Report
Is the
Best news today
You’re welcome.
It’s CBS fake news and her part in making it moreso. Shocker.
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