Getting back to the real subject: CBS is a business. That show was losing tens of millions a year in a daypart that was declining in overall viewership and getting horrendously old in median age.
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"Newsroom culture clash" at CBS News
- Thread starter Mark Roberts
- Start date
Sunday night is the highest night of viewership in all of television. On Sundays after NFL games, the viewership is the highest of any show on any night.
If the show is losing money, it's not because of the ratings. It won't be making any more money by hiring people with no broadcast news experience.
And that might be the answer.
When I redid an FM in Puerto Rico, I hired as DJs, among others, a guy who was a janitor who also had a salsa band, a guy who presented the stage shows at Puerto Rican "Saints Day" shows in the different townships on the Island and even one person who was the messenger for an ad agency who always made us laugh when he brought carts and copy for ad campaigns.
None had broadcast experience. We put them all in prime dayparts. The station got a 22.5 in its first book, 33.5 in the second one... in a market with over 30 stations in the metro. David Gleason launches Z-93 WZNT All Salsa in Puerto Rico 1978
Maybe we have a shovel and keep digging ourselves in deeper. Somebody needs to take away the shovel and give us a sword.
Compare the ratings of wired networks today with 20, 30, 40 years ago. It's tiny overall compared to historical eras.
Commpare rating and not share. The ratings are very small compared to a few decades ago. Oh, and the demos are ancient.
You know this how? I don't know but something had to be done.
You don’t take a patient into surgery to intentionally kill them.
Completely irrelevant. No streaming, no internet, only 3 networks. This isn't about history.
Hiring inexperienced people won't get viewers to switch back to broadcast TV instead of Netflix.
Unless the people with no experience will work for free and do TV with no budget or staff, it will still lose money.
Once again, this was the #1 show in TV. Nothing "had to be done." They are shooting themselves.
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Dang and it won't be shocking when more people are removed from 60 minutes because of Bari Weiss and David Ellisons demands.Details here
Shake Up at ‘60 Minutes’ as CBS News Ousts Executive Producer Tanya Simon, Correspondents Cecilia Vega, Sharyn Alfonsi; Taps Nick Bilton to Run Newsmagazine
Shake Up at '60 Minutes' as CBS News Ousts Executive Producer Tanya Simon, Correspondents Cecilia Vega, Sharyn Alfonsivariety.com
‘60 Minutes’ executive producer Tanya Simon pushed out, successor named — as Sharyn Alfonsi, other staffers axed
“60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon is exiting CBS News as editor-in-chief Bari Weiss installs former New York Times columnist and filmmaker Nick Bilton to run the iconic newsmagazine progr…nypost.com
So once again, people with no national TV experience are now in charge of the highest rated TV news show in the country.
No need for experience. Just make it up. The blind leading the blind.
Cecilia Vega Blasts CBS After Firing From '60 Minutes'
Vega said that the show has experienced "censorship, both imposed and self-driven."
deadline.com
CBS News Fires Sharyn Alfonsi In ‘60 Minutes' Shakeup; Legal Action Could Follow
CBS News has fired Sharyn Alfonsi a days after her '60 Minutes' contract expired. Legal action might follow.
deadline.com
Yes, because no one ever covered the actual last episodes of long-running series when they happened. Not Johnny Carson. Not Friends. Not MASH. Not The Sopranos. Not Letterman.
This is so comically inept it’s just sad.
Different programs are by definition unlinked. Funny that they revamped the evening and morning shows more times than some people change socks while effectively keeping 60 Minutes untouched. It’s almost as if….its a separate program that does or doesn’t make money in and of itself.
They killed West 57th. Not the whole division. They turned 48 Hours into bargain basement true crime slop. Didn’t kill the whole division.
Look, we all get the cheering of the destruction of those who dare challenge the regime. Just own it.
60 Minutes does not and has not lived and died by 18-49. Seriously.
Welch? That’s what we’re down to clinging to?
You are thinking "programming". This subject is about "news operations". When you discuss individual network news programs, they all depend on the entire news department to some extent. They are not separable.
But without the support staff, from camera persons and remote units to news bureaus and all the hardware and tech involved, none could operated. "60 Minutes" could not operate without all the support from the rest of CBS News.
There is nothing to "own". The issue is that broadcast TV networks are at a vastly lower income and viewing level than ever before. In the case of CBS, that news division was losing money. It could not go on without a change in focus and philosophy.
Yet the whole industry is dying right now. We even see it with the budgets for the entertainment shows... they just can't do "little 40 minute movies" for each show, 24 times a season.
My reference to Jack is certainly germane, particularly in an era of even further consolidation in most areas of business. His "stuff" is generally part of the case studies in both undergraduate and graduate level business courses even today, just as how Bezos and Gates and Jobs and Fred Smith and Sam Walton are also studied.
Oh thank god someone can tell me what I thought. Not sure how I survived.
You made it that discussion. 60 Minutes can—or could have—operated fully independently of the floundering morning and evening shows and brought in money. Those two others could be severed and, stick with us, 60 Minutes would be a moneymaker. This is about what they’re choosing to do to a specific program that has been the bright spot in the larger operation.
So tanking the show that has been its one success is the logical business decision. Not in any rational business evaluation, but this isn’t about rationality. It’s about ideology.
They’ve already seen what the change in philosophy did to the one show that had it fully implemented. It’s been a spectacular failure. More of that is about ideology, appeasing the regime, not fixing any alleged monetary issues. If you care about business you build on what has demonstrably worked. Not what has failed.
Guess which one they’re doing.
Many of those mini movies spread out. The content is being consumed in a variety of ways through multiple methods. And nowhere does someone say the belt can’t be tightened without wholesale changing the underlying approach to what has made 60 Minutes an institution. Those who are speaking out aren’t doing so because the budget was trimmed. They are in the inside and confirm it is about something far more insidious than budgets.
Studied is not the same as being the model still in use. Case studies can also be what not to do. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1101...-consequences-did-jack-welch-break-capitalism
'It’s over': CBS News staffers reel at Bari Weiss' '60 Minutes' 'gutting'
The mood inside the "60 Minutes" newsroom on Manhattan's 57th Street was one of devastation Thursday after CBS News head Bari Weiss purged the program's leadership — ousting beloved executives and announcing an inexperienced tech journalist as the new executive producer, despite the show...
www.rawstory.com
From the above linked article:
So all these posts about the show losing money are BS. They simply want a "new approach."
What does that mean? We know the audience for 60 Minutes was old. We know the staff of 60 Minutes is old.
Call this the revenge of the millennials. Lesley Stahl and Scott Pelley are not millennials. They're not the look the new regime wants. I see this as similar to the reworking of Nightlight after Ted Koppel left. It became more of an Inside Edition kind of show, that dealt more with trendy topics rather than national news.
Weiss and her new producer come from print, where the money comes from click bait. That's where I see this going. Use the resources of CBS News to create click bait that will feed social media rather than rely on broadcasting and Nielsen ratings. That's where the future is.
So all these posts about the show losing money are BS. They simply want a "new approach."
What does that mean? We know the audience for 60 Minutes was old. We know the staff of 60 Minutes is old.
Call this the revenge of the millennials. Lesley Stahl and Scott Pelley are not millennials. They're not the look the new regime wants. I see this as similar to the reworking of Nightlight after Ted Koppel left. It became more of an Inside Edition kind of show, that dealt more with trendy topics rather than national news.
Weiss and her new producer come from print, where the money comes from click bait. That's where I see this going. Use the resources of CBS News to create click bait that will feed social media rather than rely on broadcasting and Nielsen ratings. That's where the future is.
Alfonsi has no basis for legal action. Her attorney isn't likely to get paid, but is likely banking on publicity.Dang and it won't be shocking when more people are removed from 60 minutes because of Bari Weiss and David Ellisons demands.
Cecilia Vega Blasts CBS After Firing From '60 Minutes'
Vega said that the show has experienced "censorship, both imposed and self-driven."
CBS News Fires Sharyn Alfonsi In ‘60 Minutes' Shakeup; Legal Action Could Follow
CBS News has fired Sharyn Alfonsi a days after her '60 Minutes' contract expired. Legal action might follow.
It depends. Some insiders say Weiss was abusive in relationships with employees, and there are rules about employer abuse:
This might also be an example of invidious discrimination:
CBS News President Tom Cibrowski can say anything but everytime he’s quoted for saying anything within CBS News he is required to write statements that are approved by Bari Weiss and David Ellison. Yes Cibrowski has TV management experience but he has to do stuff because Bari Weiss and David Ellison has the final say. There was a saying that Bari Weiss is actually Tom Cibrowski’s boss that’s why we rarely hear him say anything. It’s like Linda Yaccarino was the CEO of X Inc but everything she did needed Elon Musk’s approval. Yes it’s a case of what happens when an senior executive is a President or CEO on paper but all of their final decisions is with someone else more powerful than the named CEO or President.'It’s over': CBS News staffers reel at Bari Weiss' '60 Minutes' 'gutting'
The mood inside the "60 Minutes" newsroom on Manhattan's 57th Street was one of devastation Thursday after CBS News head Bari Weiss purged the program's leadership — ousting beloved executives and announcing an inexperienced tech journalist as the new executive producer, despite the show...
Linda Yaccarino steps down from role as CEO of Musk-owned X
Yaccarino took the helm of X two years ago.
I remember watching Sharyn Alfonsi in her first TV job, weekend anchor at KHBS/KHOG, when I was in college. Even then, she was obviously a big fish in a small pond who was going to go on to do great things. I remember seeing her on 60 Minutes about 20 years later and being shocked but not surprised.
Fun fact: Her weekend co-anchor was Christy Musumeci (then known on-air as Christy Carlo), who went on to MSNBC and co-hosting mornings with Imus on WFAN 660.
Both Alfonsi and Carlo/Musumeci left KHBS/KHOG for Hampton Roads, where they competed against each other for a few years, one at WAVY, the other at WVEC.
Fun fact: Her weekend co-anchor was Christy Musumeci (then known on-air as Christy Carlo), who went on to MSNBC and co-hosting mornings with Imus on WFAN 660.
Both Alfonsi and Carlo/Musumeci left KHBS/KHOG for Hampton Roads, where they competed against each other for a few years, one at WAVY, the other at WVEC.
Will the geezers keep watching 60 Minutes out of habit or do they switch to AFV?
They might as well slash it to a quarter of its length, move it to Youtube, and rename it 16 Minutes.
I gave up on the linear 60 Minutes years ago. I would sometimes listen to the audio of the newest episode as it aired on KCBS, and if a particular story sounded worth seeing, I'd cycle back to it via the CBS News app on my Roku, or find the clip on Youtube. It's a shame, it was appointment TV for my wife and myself for decades, to the point where we'd let incoming phone calls go to voicemail in that hour. But all good things must come to an end. (So must all bad things, and God willing, I know of someone I think that statement will apply to quite soon.)