Is CBS Evening News Really #2?

[Laurence Glavin]

Tom Taylor's blog at radio-info said on Thursday that the CBS Evening News telecast is now the #2-rated evening newscast. I haven't seen that elsewhere yet. Can anybody provide a source for that statement? (This is not to indicate that I do not trust Tom; just checking).

 

[recto101]

Hey I switch from ABC World News to CBS Evening news because I think ABC is more approaching to an HLN audience. Whereas CBS Evening News tends to be good at covering world stories and Domestic stories.

 

[Robnoxious]

Diane Sawyer injecting her "feelings" into every story is vomit inducing.
ABC News really hasn't recovered from Peter Jenning's death and showing Koppel the door.

 

[johnnya2k6]

Diane Sawyer injecting her "feelings" into every story is vomit inducing.
ABC News really hasn't recovered from Peter Jenning's death and showing Koppel the door.

Brian Williams does the same thing on his newscast (well, from a male perspective); why he's still #1, I don't know.

 

[FreddyE1977]

in the sense that #2 is a euphemism for...

 

[spencerkarter85]

Diane Sawyer injecting her "feelings" into every story is vomit inducing.
ABC News really hasn't recovered from Peter Jenning's death and showing Koppel the door.

I agree. Also didn't recover after Frank Reynolds' 1983 death (end of the original WNT Trio era) that made the late great Peter Jennings as sole anchor until his lung cancer death in 2005, and the late Max Robinson left ABC News for NBC O&O WMAQ-TV in Chicago until he died from AIDS in 1988.

 

[Robnoxious]

Brian Williams does the same thing on his newscast (well, from a male perspective); why he's still #1, I don't know.

If I had to predict why, it would likely boil down to familiarity. Brian Williams has been on the longest out of the crop the Big 3 have on the air now and has an advantage of crossover brand with MSNBC. To be fair, I don't watch any of the Big 3 nightly newscast and in my opinion they are all garbage. CBS and Scott Pelley just appear as the lesser of the stench that is television "journalism" today.

 

[Mario500]

Here is the address to a news release from CBS regarding the evening news program being ranked number two in the Nielsen ratings for viewers and listeners between the ages of 25 and 54:

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-news/releases/view?id=30815

Diane Sawyer injecting her "feelings" into every story is vomit inducing.
ABC News really hasn't recovered from Peter Jenning's death and showing Koppel the door.

Brian Williams does the same thing on his newscast (well, from a male perspective); why he's still #1, I don't know.

News presenters and reporters injecting their feelings into news programs is a daily occurrence during the local news programs broadcast in Mobile, Alabama.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Diane Sawyer injecting her "feelings" into every story is vomit inducing.
ABC News really hasn't recovered from Peter Jenning's death and showing Koppel the door.

That's the reason I wanted to switch over to CBS Evening News but the wife likes the reporters on ABC.

Even after I managed to have her watch CBS, she claims that network runs the same stories as ABC; of which I disagreed.

Guess who won what news we watch. :

 

[KeithE4]

CBS and Scott Pelley just appear as the lesser of the stench that is television "journalism" today.

After years of liberal lightning-rods Dan Rather and Katie Couric, I think Pelley was hired because he offends absolutely no one. He could be compared to Roger Mudd, another decent-but-unexciting news anchor who got the job done without much fanfare. But neither could be compared to Uncle Walter.

 

[formeraa]

CBS and Scott Pelley just appear as the lesser of the stench that is television "journalism" today.

After years of liberal lightning-rods Dan Rather and Katie Couric, I think Pelley was hired because he offends absolutely no one. He could be compared to Roger Mudd, another decent-but-unexciting news anchor who got the job done without much fanfare. But neither could be compared to Uncle Walter.

I'm surprised that you didn't call Uncle Walter a "liberal" as well. :
That said, it's sad that we think of news in political terms. Arguably, a boring, objective newscast should be the gold standard. But, then, nobody would watch.

 

[spencerkarter85]

I've seen this episode of All in The Family from 1971 where Archie Bunker (the late Carrol O'Connor) appeared on CBS. He said to Edith "What channel is Cronkite is on?" Edith replied "Channel 2 Archie, the one you don't watch because he's a communist" (I remember). Plus in that episode features uncredited appearances of the late Richard Nixon (who was President at the time) and then-CBS anchorman/reporter Dan Rather.

 

[formeraa]

I've seen this episode of All in The Family from 1971 where Archie Bunker (the late Carrol O'Connor) appeared on CBS. He said to Edith "What channel is Cronkite is on?" Edith replied "Channel 2 Archie, the one you don't watch because he's a communist" (I remember). Plus in that episode features uncredited appearances of the late Richard Nixon (who was President at the time) and then-CBS anchorman/reporter Dan Rather.

I remember seeing that one when I was a kid. I asked my Mom what a "communist" was!

 

[OldNumber7]

i'm glad to see I'm not alone in making the switch to Pelley and CBS. It's the only newscast of the three that doesn't insult my intelligence and assume I'm a gal. I was never a CBS fan, and even less so when Katie was there, but I've given up on ABC (post Jennings) and NBC (post Brokaw). Diane and Brian aren't in the same league as their predecessors.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Tom Taylor's blog at radio-info said on Thursday that the CBS Evening News telecast is now the #2-rated evening newscast. I haven't seen that elsewhere yet. Can anybody provide a source for that statement? (This is not to indicate that I do not trust Tom; just checking).

I can believe it, if only to note how well Scott Pelley has stabilized that program. It really does have the feel of a daily 60 Minutes because of his presentation, and it works.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

This is the first time CBS hasn't finished a week in third since Katie's first week (Labor Day 2006). A notable achievement, but not quite enough data to say that it is real.

 

[KeithE4]

CBS and Scott Pelley just appear as the lesser of the stench that is television "journalism" today.

After years of liberal lightning-rods Dan Rather and Katie Couric, I think Pelley was hired because he offends absolutely no one. He could be compared to Roger Mudd, another decent-but-unexciting news anchor who got the job done without much fanfare. But neither could be compared to Uncle Walter.

I'm surprised that you didn't call Uncle Walter a "liberal" as well. :

He was, and was man enough to admit it. But with one notable exception, he kept his personal views out of his newscasts, as did the conservative Chet Huntley.

Dan Rather was a lightning rod due to his own sometimes-irresponsible actions (you don't mouth off to a President during his press conference). So was Katie Couric to a certain extent, mostly due to her unabashed idolatry of the Clintons (especially Hillary) during her Today Show tenure. She tried to tone that down during her anchor stint, but sometimes it didn't work.

That said, it's sad that we think of news in political terms. Arguably, a boring, objective newscast should be the gold standard. But, then, nobody would watch.

That's been a problem ever since guys like Cronkite, Huntley, and Howard K. Smith left their respective anchor chairs. None of them never went after a President, like Rather did twice (Nixon and Daddy Bush), AFAIK. They were from a different era, when news anchor just read the news but you knew that they knew what they were talking about. Later generations wanted to be the next Edward R. Murrow, not the next Chet Huntley.

In any case, how many people younger than about 60 watch the network newscasts anyway? This is yet another old-tyme format that is winding down with the passing of the WW2/Korean War generation. Anyone with an internet connection or cable can get national/international news any time they want. And, at least in my time zone, CBS, NBC. and ABC are delayed 2 hours anyway. I can read their websites for updates.

 

[recto101]

Look I wonder if this counts CBS all-News stations like WCBS880 in NYC and KCBS in San Francisco because they air the first 5-10 minutes CBS Evening News at 3:30pm on KCBS in San Francisco. I know KCBS 106.9FM would air Face the Nation, and 60 Minutes. Also in some cases the CW station KBCW in San Francisco airs Face the Nation when KPIX have to go to CBS Sports for a Network sports event.

I remember on ABC News Cecilia Vega and Lisa Stark are pressured to rehash Tabloid stories that HLN and CNN does earlier in the day. But I remember Lisa Stark and Cecilia Vega did better when they were local reporters on KGO-TV in San Francisco. Lisa Stark reports on the Loma Prieta Quake and Cecilia Vega reports on the Bart Police case and the Prop 8 case. Look Diane Sawyer has advisers at ABC telling her to make World News more like HLN. I heard stuff that Roger Grimsby before he went to WABC and TV critics in the 1970's said that KGO-TV is a tabloid station because of Kickers Guts and Orgasms. Look at 2011 and 2012 KGO-AM is an all-Tabloid station. and KCBS is a real -All News station. I know people in NYC says WEMP-FM is an all tabloid station and WCBS 880 is a real all-news station.

 

[Markxxx]

I've seen this episode of All in The Family from 1971 where Archie Bunker (the late Carrol O'Connor) appeared on CBS. He said to Edith "What channel is Cronkite is on?" Edith replied "Channel 2 Archie, the one you don't watch because he's a communist" (I remember). Plus in that episode features uncredited appearances of the late Richard Nixon (who was President at the time) and then-CBS anchorman/reporter Dan Rather.

But there were lots of episodes where Archie watched Walter Cronkite. He'd call him a pinko. And Edith would say as he watched he'd yell back or blow raspberries at "Mr Cronkite."

Of course that was back in the era when networks would rarely acknowledge a show on a different network.

 

[formeraa]

Charlie Rose is doing a credible job on "CBS This Morning" as well. It's a whole lot better than the sappy pair on The Today Show (Matt playing a conservative; Ann playing the emotional liberal) or the trainwreck on GMA (seems like a slick, tabloid-like local newscast).