Evening News Ratings in a Word: Down
By BILL CARTER
New York Times
The network news standings, always near immutable, showed nothing suggesting a shakeup during the second quarter – though they did demonstrate a distinctive trend for all parties: downward.
For ABC and CBS, down meant all the way to another new low, this time for evening newscast ratings in the second quarter of a year (at least since the Nielsen company started using its current people meter system in 1987). It was the lowest second quarter for NBC since 2007.
In terms of competitive placement, NBC’s news dominance was unshaken – and barely stirred – from April through June. In the morning, the “Today” show ruled as ever; in the evening, Brian Williams maintained a strong edge. But in a world where mass erosion is the rule, NBC’s losses were marginally bigger than those for second-place ABC.
As for CBS, deep in third place in both morning and evening, the one pinpoint of light was an almost steady performance in the evening news in the group that news advertisers pay for, viewers between the ages of 25 and 54.
Over all, Mr. Williams continued to lead in the evenings with about 7.6 million total viewers and 2.3 million in the 25-54 group, according to Nielsen. The numbers were down about 5 percent from last year.
ABC’s “World News,” now with Diane Sawyer as anchor, reached about 7 million viewers with about 2 million in the 25-54 group. In both cases that represented about a 4 percent drop from last year at the same time.
CBS’s “Evening News,” with Katie Couric, pulled in about 5.5 million viewers, down about 6 percent from last year, and about 1.6 million in the preferred age group, down only about 30,000 from a year ago.
The morning story, while still dominated by NBC and the “Today” show, at least had one dose of promising news for “Good Morning America” on ABC. Alone among the network news shows, “GMA” did not decline in total viewers, matching its 4.27 million from a year ago. But the show lost about 100,000 viewers in that ad-friendly age group.
