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Third-Place ‘CBS Evening News’ Sliding, but Up Year-to-Year

Oct 17, 2006  •  Post A Comment

The evening stars in the network news universe were back in their familiar places the week of Oct. 9, as the $15 million-a-year Katie Couric continued to see her 6-week-old “CBS Evening News” slide back to an improved third place in total viewers and the demographic category that brings in the biggest bucks for news programs.

According to national data from Nielsen Media Research, “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” finished first for the week in total viewers (8.8 million) and 25- to 54-year-old viewers (2.3 rating/9 share).

ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” finished second with an average 8 million viewers and a 2.2 rating/9 share in the 25 to 54 demo. “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” averaged 7.3 million viewers and a 2.0/8 in the demo.

For CBS, those numbers represent year-to-year increases of 6 percent and 11 percent, respectively. But for Ms. Couric it’s a decline of 28 percent and 26 percent, respectively, since the week of her Sept. 5 debut.

For NBC, last week’s “Nightly News” was off year to year by 4 percent in total viewers and the demo.

ABC’s “World News” was off 3 percent and 12 percent, respectively, but Mr. Gibson has finished in first place among women 25 to 54 for four of the past six weeks. Mr. Gibson’s overall viewership and demo were his newscast’s highest since the week of March 27.