By Alexandra Steigrad, New York Post July 17, 2019
Norah O’Donnell’s debut as the new “CBS Evening News” anchor drew much media fanfare but not so many viewers.
The former co-host of “CBS This Morning” came in last place among evening shows on Monday despite a much-publicized premiere that included a sit-down with Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world.
O’Donnell not only trailed “ABC’s World News Tonight” and “NBC Nightly News,” she also failed to best the ratings of her predecessor, Jeff Glor, who hosted “CBS Evening News” for a year and a half.
CBS rolled out the red carpet for O’Donnell when it announced her new role in May — the same day she was set to receive a high-profile media award from her now former “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King.
It then heavily promoted her first show, which boasted an interview with Bezos about his space venture Blue Origin to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. King, too, gave the show a shout-out on Twitter.
Despite all the buzz, Monday night’s broadcast slipped compared to the same night a year earlier, as well as for the show’s average audience so this year, ratings agency Nielsen said. O’Donnell garnered a total audience of 5.6 million viewers, down 1% from the same night in 2018 when Glor drew 5.7 million viewers. Her broadcast slid 6% compared with the 2019-to-date average of nearly 6 million.
Read more HERE.
The old ladies in nursing homes and hospitals don’t want to see a woman reading them the “news”. They want to see a hot young male stud. They don’t get much pleasure out of life anymore. CBS should know their demographics. Anybody younger than 60 gets their “news” from the Internet or local TV “news”. Even CBS has a digital Internet based “news” service – I don’t know why they are even bothering with this network “news”cast.
While busy with the Apollo 11 moon landing, CBS should remember their glory days with anchor and Chief Editor Walter Cronkite. They haven’t had it as good since his retirement. In space or elsewhere.
I think Oh Brother went overboard a tad what with old ladies in nursing homes etc. It’s true however, that younger viewers aren’t there but on the Internet instead. So land-based news should move along, in step with their once loyal viewers. The anchors gender plays little, if any part.
Just another female trying to fill the pants of a male anchor.
The two leading American nets are male.
No amount of trying to make her voice lower or intense scowling will
make her a number one reader.
Of course there are many diverse factors that have contributed to the decline in viewership of network evening news broadcasts. One of the biggest, in my opinion, was the manufactured smear campaign of George Bush the CBS evening news host Dan Rather tried to foist off on the American public in 2004. (Yes, I know he did it on a segment on the “60 Minutes” pseudo news show.) Rather lost credibility not only for himself but for network news in general with his “fake but accurate” posturing in the fallout from his duplicity. The major network news broadcasts have a liberal outlook. America is not a liberal nation. With a viewership of 5-7 million people nightly in a country with a population approaching 350 million, is it any wonder TV news is dying?
Where I live CBS News comes on last. Part of it can be explained by Directv dropping the local CBS station from their line-up. Part of it is the musical chairs being played out at CBS after shenanigans by male employees. Part of it can be explained because most people read their news off of the internet first thing in the morning. That puts nightly CBS news dead last in just about everything. Good luck Norah. You’ll be needing it.
I don’t know why CBS got ride of a very good presenter in Jeff Glor. Is it because, like CBC, the network is run by lesbians ?