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Changes Coming To CBS News

Don CT said:
Are the ratings bad that they need to make changes? Or is it just changes for the sake of it.
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CBS made some bad moves in the wake of Bob Simon's unexpected death and Charlie Rose's ignominious firing. John Dickerson is a bad fit for mornings, and Jeff Glor is a bad fit for evenings. Oprah was a bad fit for 60 Minutes. The way CBS promoted Bianna Golodryga and then almost immediately let her go was head-spinning.

CBS's news ratings have been bad for at least 20 years.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
CBS made some bad moves in the wake of Bob Simon's unexpected death and Charlie Rose's ignominious firing. John Dickerson is a bad fit for mornings, and Jeff Glor is a bad fit for evenings. Oprah was a bad fit for 60 Minutes. The way CBS promoted Bianna Golodryga and then almost immediately let her go was head-spinning.

CBS's news ratings have been bad for at least 20 years.
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Glor is better than Pelley was.
 
There was Uncle Walter, and then there was everybody else.

But in 2019, does evening news from a dinosaur network really matter? By dinner time, most people already know what's going on in the world. This has been true for 20 years.
 
KeithE4 said:
There was Uncle Walter, and then there was everybody else.

But in 2019, does evening news from a dinosaur network really matter? By dinner time, most people already know what's going on in the world. This has been true for 20 years.
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Walter would not have lasted as long in todays time either.
 
But in 2019, does evening news from a dinosaur network really matter? By dinner time, most people already know what's going on in the world. This has been true for 20 years.
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But in 2019 CBS News current leaders are putting emphasis on the CBSN operations and note CBS O&O's and CW affiliates owned by CBS were in talks to do a local edition of CBSN "Your city here" so far NYC edition is running. The evening news may not matter that much today but the "you give us 22 minutes, we give you the world" mantra of TV and internet news is true today.
 
KeithE4 said:
But in 2019, does evening news from a dinosaur network really matter?
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Using that standard, does anything matter? But that's not why they do it. It's a service they provide to their affiliates, who build their own local news around it. Year after year, the affiliates are asked, and they continue to want it. Competitively, CBS has to offer an evening news and a morning show for that reason. Neither are necessary for the viewers. The viewers have their favorites, and their regular routines. But if you're going to be a traditional TV network (not Fox or CW), this is what you do. Otherwise, might as well shut the whole thing down. But the issue for this particular thread is the specific people in the specific roles, and apparently those are about to change.
 
TheBigA said:
Using that standard, does anything matter? But that's not why they do it. It's a service they provide to their affiliates, who build their own local news around it. Year after year, the affiliates are asked, and they continue to want it. Competitively, CBS has to offer an evening news and a morning show for that reason. Neither are necessary for the viewers. The viewers have their favorites, and their regular routines. But if you're going to be a traditional TV network (not Fox or CW), this is what you do. Otherwise, might as well shut the whole thing down. But the issue for this particular thread is the specific people in the specific roles, and apparently those are about to change.
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True, but there is more going on here. An end of day newscast still attracts quite a few viewers, (admittedly older viewers), but the truth is the demise of the network evening news has been predicted since the 1970's. Here we are almost 50 years later saying the same thing. I think there may be more life in these newscasts than anyone wants to admit, not only from a ratings and advertising standpoint, but more importantly from a viewer "image" of the said networks. The original Big 3 recognize their power still exists with the ability to have a strong news image.

But yes, change is inevitable, and CBS is ranking #3 lately, so changes will occur.
 
TheBigA said:
Using that standard, does anything matter? But that's not why they do it. It's a service they provide to their affiliates, who build their own local news around it. Year after year, the affiliates are asked, and they continue to want it. Competitively, CBS has to offer an evening news and a morning show for that reason. Neither are necessary for the viewers. The viewers have their favorites, and their regular routines. But if you're going to be a traditional TV network (not Fox or CW), this is what you do. Otherwise, might as well shut the whole thing down. But the issue for this particular thread is the specific people in the specific roles, and apparently those are about to change.
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How many affiliates want to run the 7 am breakfast news shows. I think they would rather load up the morning with local news. I know our local CBS affiliate was forced to take the first hour of CBS This Morning when they made the big change.
 
Don CT said:
How many affiliates want to run the 7 am breakfast news shows. I think they would rather load up the morning with local news.
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Depends on the size of the market. They offer lots of cutaways for local inserts. Shouldn't be a problem. If there's a real local emergency, they can pre-empt.

The point is they need a way to fund their news department. The CBSN online thing is a loss leader now, but it'll likely be the future. Until then, the broadcast shows fund the future growth. Killing the morning show or the evening news now is journalistic suicide.
 
TheBigA said:
The point is they need a way to fund their news department.
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I don't know how much CBS (and NBC & ABC) charge advertisers for their evening news shows, but given the time slot and the age range of most viewers (55 to dead), I can't believe it's a lot, even compared to daytime, let alone prime time.

The CBSN online thing is a loss leader now, but it'll likely be the future. Until then, the broadcast shows fund the future growth.
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I thought they had plans to offer it to affiliates as a subchannel. CBSN is a very good product, and they'd be smart to make it more visible. It makes a whole lot more sense to offer a news product 24/7 than just only a few times per day. CNN showed us that almost 40 years ago, at least when they were still airing news instead of All Commentary, All The Time like today. If CBSN can keep the political BS off their air, other than maybe replays of Face The Nation once or twice per week, they could do alright.

Killing the morning show or the evening news now is journalistic suicide.
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Why do you say that? I have to disagree. CBS news in the morning hasn't been all that successful since it replaced Captain Kangaroo. Sorry, but the CBS Evening News is geezer-fare, unless it's a certain influential subset of those geezers has enough pull to keep it going. That also goes for the NBC and ABC evening news shows. Maybe they're still popular enough in the Washington/Philly/NYC/Boston corridor to justify their existence. Flyover Country is watching Fox.

The only CBS news show that would be journalistic suicide to cancel is 60 Minutes.
 
KeithE4 said:
I don't know how much CBS (and NBC & ABC) charge advertisers for their evening news shows, but given the time slot and the age range of most viewers (55 to dead), I can't believe it's a lot, even compared to daytime, let alone prime time.
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It doesn't matter. It's a five-day-a-week slot that is a consistent source of revenue, and it funds the daily staffing that provides the national and international video that stations run in their local news.

KeithE4 said:
Why do you say that? I have to disagree. CBS news in the morning hasn't been all that successful since it replaced Captain Kangaroo.
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It doesn't matter. It's 10 hours of programming that justifies hiring staff who do the work that stations use every day. Running CBS This Morning is the price stations pay to be CBS affiliates. They know it's going to rate #3, because somebody has to be #3. It would be wonderful to be successful, but right now it provides revenue that helps supports the news budget. Without that revenue, CBS News has to fire 2/3rds of their staff.

KeithE4 said:
The only CBS news show that would be journalistic suicide to cancel is 60 Minutes.
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Sure it's very successful, but it's only 1 hour a week. How many commercials does that give them to sell? They once had two shows like that. Not any more. Think like an accountant for a second. It's hard to justify a worldwide staff of hundreds of journalists for 1 hour a week. Until CBS News can get user credit card numbers and charge people directly, they have to get their money from three broadcast TV shows. It's not a growth area, but it's all they've got right now.
 
Norah O'Donnell's ratings on the "CBS Evening News" will probably be quite good—on her debut. After that, all bets are off.

I'm surprised the shakeup did not affect "Face The Nation." Margaret Brennan lacks the perspicacity required for that program. Instead of returning John Dickerson to Sunday mornings, however, Ms. Zirinsky has chosen to move him to "60 Minutes."
 
Kemosabe said:
Norah O'Donnell's ratings on the "CBS Evening News" will probably be quite good—on her debut. After that, all bets are off.

I'm surprised the shakeup did not affect "Face The Nation." Margaret Brennan lacks the perspicacity required for that program. Instead of returning John Dickerson to Sunday mornings, however, Ms. Zirinsky has chosen to move him to "60 Minutes."
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This move could blow up in CBS' face.
 
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