Will Katie Couric Make A (long-term) Difference For CBS?

[Mark_Giardina]

If one wishes to believe the hype, CBS is about to undergo a new era in broadcast news with the debut September 5th of Katie Couric as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Before I continue further about Couric someone should acknowledge the contribution Bob Schieffer has made to the CBS Evening News after Dan Rather was (finally) booted out of the anchor chair.

What most of the public isn't aware of is that ratings for the CBS Evening News actually increased during the time that Schieffer took over from Rather. So congratulations to Bob Schieffer. As for the CBS brass, it sure took you folks long enough to realize that you should have went with Roger Mudd instead of Dan Rather when Cronkite retired in the 1980s.

And now to Couric. To open up this conversation to the floor, so-to-speak, let's hear from other contributors to this board for their comments to the following questions.
1. Will Couric overtake Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson and be the number one rated evening newscast on TV? Will it take one year, two years, longer?
2. How long before the public tires of Couric and CBS drops back to third place after posting a ratings spike for the first few months as people turn in to see how Couric is doing?
3. Has the establishment of cable TV news made it so that most people don’t either watch, or care if the commercial networks have an evening newscast anymore?

Please feel free to add your own questions or observations.

 

[Braves2005]

I wish Katie well but I do have some reservations after Barbara Walters left Today to go to ABC and became co-anchor with Harry Reasoner(who did not like Barbara one bit and it showed during their time they were together). Also ABC failed with Elizabeth Vargas as an anchor and finally used Charles Gibson(who should have been the anchor to begin with).

Now do I say that Katie will overtake Brian Williams and Charles Gibson? Only time will tell,but it will be interesting of what ratings will be the first few weeks.

 

[KML0224]

Katie will spike their ratings short-term, mostly out of curiosity. I wish CBS well, but can't see them passing Williams and Gibson for good.

 

[RobNorton]

Me neither. The mismatch I see here is this:

I don't see Katie's fans who want Today show-type fare tuning into *any* evening newscast, even if someone from the Today show is anchoring it. After the initial ratings spike driven by curiosity, I'm guessing she'll settle into third place...way into third place.

Unless CBS can really rebrand her, I see lots of Schieffer's audience going over to watch Gibson, since he has a kind of a similar style, and I dunno how many bodies that leaves for Katie to pick up.

I suppose CBS could make Evening News into a "Today"-type show in the evening...they have talked about changing the format of the Evening news so maybe that's what they have in mind.

 

[arnoldevns]

Katie Couric does not play well in the heartland of America. The Today Show had fallen into 2nd or 3rd place in many markets before she decided to go to CBS. The people who didn't like her on Today, won't care for her on CBS.

There will be a spike in viewership out of curiousity, but it won't last long. Katie-fatigue set in a long time ago for most of the country and I suspect the evening audience will tire of her quickly too.

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

Also ABC failed with Elizabeth Vargas as an anchor and finally used Charles Gibson(who should have been the anchor to begin with).

She didn't really fail. She was only an interim replacement to begin with (Along with Bob Woodward that is).

If it weren't for Bob getting injured while in Baghdad, dare I say it, but I really don't think Charlie would've landed the WNT job. OTOH, I don't think Elizabeth Vargas would've remained on the broadcast either. I think Bob would've been handed the WNT job as sole anchor anyway as the dual-anchor format would've eventually failed. Charlie would've remained on GMA.

As it stands now, the current GMA hosting structure is at risk of failing. I just don't see it lasting too much longer (Especially if the Meredith/Matt thing on Today becomes popular).

Now do I say that Katie will overtake Brian Williams and Charles Gibson? Only time will tell,but it will be interesting of what ratings will be the first few weeks.

I don't think she'll overtake them as much as she'll overtake some of the cable news shows on at 6:30 PM ET, namely Special Report With Brit Hume on FNC (How "special" are the reports on that program anyway? It's nothing but a daily analysis of the day's events in Washington. That's not "special". Good grief).

Just my opinion though

Cheers

 

[oldschooltv]

I think I'll actually stop watching the network evening news altogether. I was a fan of the late Peter Jennings, but didn't care much for Brokaw or Rather. When the change of guard occurred last year, I started to watch CBS News because of Bob Scheiffer. I think he's an excellent journalist and anchorman. He was respectful to all of his colleagues and guests, and asked his questions with class. He's as dignified as they come.

As for Katie Couric, I think she's awful. I was never a fan of hers, but the last time I ever watched her was when she interviewed a little African American boy deemed a "hero" (for whatever reason I forget) immediately after the Katrina disaster in New Orleans. The poor kid was up at 6 o'clock in the morning for this interview, was separated from his family for days during the choas down there, and was then bombarded by the media. Couric questioned him as if he was a crooked politician worthy of interregation. The little boy eventually lost interest in the interview, afterall he was only four or five years old, so let's remember the typical attention span of a boy that age. Well Couric just about had it with him, made a few nasty comments and dirty looks, then said something like she knows "he's tired and overwhelmed and went through alot, but let's try to get through the interview, okay?!" It just hit me the wrong way and she really showed her true colors, those of a big bitc$. I'm sorry but have some compassion for the poor kid. She has children herself, shouldn't she know how to handle them? Or is she that far removed from normal life that she has no parental instinct, or even common sense for that matter.

I was never really a fan of her, but after that, I said I'd never watch her again. It's too bad CBS wants someone like her to lead their news department. It was great while it lasted Bob, I'm sorry to see you go. CBS lost a viewer in me. As for NBC, I think they scored big time with Meredith Vieira. She's a down to earth person, humble, and compassionate, and NBC is better off with her than with Couric. I think Katie should look for another line of work. NBC & Today made her name worth more than her actual skills and personality over the years.

 

[Markxxx]

Well I disagree that Roger Mudd would've been a better choice. Mudd didn't set any world on fire when he got mad and sulked till he left CBS.

Couric is a choice. Why go with another anchor that is similar to NBC or ABC? It's a stragedy at least. Whether or not it works, CBS will at least gain some publicity and be known as the network that gave "women" a break, instead of "the good old boys network" like so many other corporations.

I can hardly wait till digital TV takes hold as one of the people without cable, I find I can only watch ABC (channel 7) because NBC (Channel 5) and CBS (Channel 2) come in horrible. Besides in terms of actual news quality, there is really little difference in news reports.

I am the old fashioned type when it comes to news. I believe the STAR of the news should be the news.

 

[Mark_Giardina]

I am the old fashioned type when it comes to news. I believe the STAR of the news should be the news.

Amen to that. Nothing upsets me more watching TV, both national and especially local news, than having to put up with reporters and anchors that waste more air time trying to be cute or make funny jokes. If I want jokes I will turn on the Comedy Channel (or watch Sheppard Smith on Fox News).

I will never forget one local story about a vacant house fire (there's a real story for you) with the reporter actually saying “Behind me you can see this house is on fire." I came this close to calling the News Director at the TV station and asking where in the hell did you find this person, and how much of your foot went up their butt for making such a stupid comment like that on the air? I never made the call, but I never went back to watch local news on the station anymore either.

As for national news, my big question is who in hell hired Rita Cosby? I get such a kick when these mediocre personalities ( I don't consider Cosby a news person) flit from one network to another.

Give me the BBC news anytime. Their anchors are solid and their reporters report the news.
Or even better the CBC's The National. If only American TV news was like The National. Unfortunately we don't have a Peter Mansbridge.

 

[MACK184]

It is unlikely that Ms. Couric will in the long run be a big ratings booster for CBS. Mainline network nightly news is aging steadily. One recent study showed that the average viewer's age for ABC, NBC or CBS nightly news programs was 60 years old. As the audience contracts and ages, the traditional network news broadcasts will become less and less important. It is likely as mentioned earlier that she will give the ratings a short-term boost based on curiosity. But in the long run, people will continue to leave the mainline nets and move to CNN, Fox & the other cable nets who pretty much supply news on demand.

 

[toby]

I have always found Couric off putting and I think that any gains CBS has made will quickly erode.

 

[dampier]

As it stands now, the current GMA hosting structure is at risk of failing. I just don't see it lasting too much longer (Especially if the Meredith/Matt thing on Today becomes popular).

Now do I say that Katie will overtake Brian Williams and Charles Gibson? Only time will tell,but it will be interesting of what ratings will be the first few weeks.

I don't think she'll overtake them as much as she'll overtake some of the cable news shows on at 6:30 PM ET, namely Special Report With Brit Hume on FNC (How "special" are the reports on that program anyway? It's nothing but a daily analysis of the day's events in Washington. That's not "special". Good grief).

Does anyone have numbers? It was my understanding that no cable news show comes close in any way to beating any of the major network newscasts in ratings.

 

[dampier]

As for national news, my big question is who in hell hired Rita Cosby? I get such a kick when these mediocre personalities ( I don't consider Cosby a news person) flit from one network to another.

Give me the BBC news anytime. Their anchors are solid and their reporters report the news.
Or even better the CBC's The National. If only American TV news was like The National. Unfortunately we don't have a Peter Mansbridge.[/b]

Sucrets Cosby was imported from Fox News, hired to do a Nancy Grace/Greta format show for MSNBC. With a voice ready for print journalism, people ran for other channels, Keith Olbermann rolled his eyes at her every night (and in e-mail comments called her nice but as dumb as a bag of rocks), and her show was dropped for stale Dateline documentary reruns.

If you look at what is left on MSNBC, you have Tucker(!) who has dropped the bowtie (and still more viewers), as well as Joe Scarborough dancing to the left politically to try and keep his show on the air. The only hosts MSNBC still cares about are the irreverent Olbermann who at least does something different, and the Blowin' in the Wind pundit world of Chris Matthews, who can be counted on to play access journalism and attacking those who are below 50% in the polls.

The news has long since been cancelled on cable news. For a remarkable breath of fresh air, I spend an hour every day with BBC World Service's Newshour program (you can listen online on demand). It's simply amazing when compared with the E! trash that passes for cable news these days.

I long since stopped caring about the 6:30 newscasts because I couldn't stand one more fluff medical report followed by 2:30 of "ask your doctor if x is right for you" advertisements.

You can tell how much CBS cares about Ms. Couric when an enterprising promotions art guy airbrushed those extra pounds away in those publicity photos. We can't have fat women delivering news!

 

[Braves2005]

I bet that Katie will be a fodder for jokes from Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live(whoever will play her on SNL will be funny indeed) since she is no longer with NBC.

 

[nuzguy]

RE the vacant house fire. Many news directors at least used to discourage anchors and reporters from anysuch reference as "as you see here," since invariably whatever the audience was supposed to "see here" wasn't there. In this case the burning house "was there," but your comment on the banality of the reference was oh so (painfully) correct. Such makes television into theater of the absurd.

 

[truthandjustice]

I didn't watch Katie. But some of my relatives did. They were not impressed.They reminded me of
the experiment CBS did with having Dan Rather & Connie Chung share anchor duties. And how short-lived
that was.Bob Schieffer is missed. But thank goodness he is still with 'Face The Nation'.

 

[RobNorton]

Schieffer and company were onto a good formula. Aside from Schieffer's instincts as managing editor (story selection, sequence, etc) - these production points were changed tonight, and didn't need to be-

- Correspondents introducing their own segments at the top of the show

- Live discussions with correspondents after their packages aired where further questions that the viewer might have could be asked by Bob and then answered by the correspondent.

Basically, the role of the correspondents was diminished. I can understand the suits making that move - they feel they paid a lot for Katie, so then there needs to be MORE Katie! But, the primary mistake here that was made was - they decided to make the show adapt to the talent they happened to hire, as opposed to making the talent adapt to the format of the show that has proven successful. CBS Evening News was the only evening broadcast network newscast to record gains in viewers over the past year, and that was because of a certain format or formula that was in place.

But somehow, a bunch of people decided to toss out the formula in the interest of adopting a new formula that will be more suited to the talent the network spent a lot of money on. It might pay off, but, I think it's safe to say it was a gamble that didn't need to be taken.

If they were hiring Katie Couric for the CBS morning show, this would be a completely different discussion. But, morning News and the evening news on the networks are today completely different animals with completely different audiences. It's not like when Brokaw came off the Today show a couple of decades ago to take over NBC Nightly News. It's different now.