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AP

Slow Start for New CBS Anchor O’Donnell

Jul 23, 2019  •  Post A Comment

“CBS chose the middle of the summer for Norah O’Donnell to debut as ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor, so probably should not be surprised that not too many people noticed,” David Bauder reports for the AP, citing Nielsen figures indicating that an average of 5.24 million people watched the newscast last week, O’Donnell’s first week.

That keeps CBS in third place behind ABC’s “World News Tonight,” which averaged 7.9 million viewers, and “NBC Nightly News,” with 6.9 million.

Last week’s CBS figures were “essentially unchanged from the week before, when Jim Axelrod was the substitute host,” Bauder notes.

“Statistics being statistics, there are different ways you could look at O’Donnell’s performance. CBS says the numbers are trending up ever-so-slightly from the previous month,” the report adds. “Yet compared to the same week a year ago, CBS was down 5 percent in viewers and even more sharply among viewers aged 25-to-54, the age group upon which most advertising sales for news programming are based. Year-to-year, NBC is also down 5 percent and ABC is up 1 percent.”

The report quotes CBS News President Susan Zirinsky saying: “Judging numbers after only one week is meaningless.”

23 Comments

  1. cbs would be in first place had they kept Bob Scheifer

  2. When you hire a women who is not very personable this is what happens.

  3. She is great . Keep up the good job!!!!!

  4. Was a hack on CBS this morning, so why would you expect more on the evening news???

  5. Fake news. Fan. Rather was s phoney.

  6. I I’m excited to have Nora on the evening news she brings a breath of fresh air. Her experience and personality has enhanced the evening news I’m very pleased to have her as the new anchor*****stars

  7. I believe it’s great to have her in the evening news! She is certainly good and I’m proud of our local person, too!

  8. Give her time to getting used to doing nightly news and people getting used to her! I like her think she does a professional job and shes smart!

    • That’s the same thing they said when Jeff Glor took over.

  9. It will take time for her numbers to rise . We live in a racist world and the public is against women and minorities.

    Hang in there lounge lady ‘nnnn

  10. I very much support women being elevated but I think that Nora is not the best fit. She seems to inject her views and opinions which might be a left over from her morning show days. When I watch the evening news I want just the story, the facts. I’ll form my own opinions. I don’t need any newscasters trying to sway my thinking. She seems inclined to do this as did Scott Pelly where as Jeff Glor maintained neutrality and focused on simply reporting events. There are too many newscasters that think they have some responsibility to steer people’s thoughts and feelings. Most of us are educated enough to form our own opinions. Tell Nora to take the opinions and implications down and she may fair better.

  11. She is a beautiful piece of eye candy . In time she will be just fine.

    Give her some time to get used to doing the evening news ,

  12. Report the news less her opinion . Let the public draw their own opinion.

  13. A. Very. Enlightened. Person. With. A. Direct. Approach. To share. A. Honest story

  14. I miss her in the morning, as I felt she and Gayle complimented each other and made a strong team. Nora is smart, honest and adds quality in both positions. I agree, give everyone, Nora and all of us, time to adjust. Tough call, as I think Jeff Glor did a fine job, too.

  15. You did a disservice to nightly news when you got rid of Jeff glor
    He was a joy to watch and you could tell he truly cared about reporting facts and he had emotion and empathy in his reporting
    BIG MISTAKE replacing him with extremely biased norah

  16. Loved Jeff Glor; very professional and non-biased; which is the way we like it. Nora is biased & politically very liberal…..

  17. Jeff Glor was down to earth and brought a good vibe. I like Nora but something seems off.

  18. I loved Jeff Glor! He was very smart and kind. I don’t watch anymore!

  19. I watch CBS morning news because it is news without all the fluff ABC & NBC has in the morning. But I have to say I was so glad when Nora left because she was so snarky and rude to any conservative that would be on the show. OMGoodness even when our Presidents name would come up, you could just see her whole self be disgusted, very apparent she does not like President Trump. I don’t know about any one else but these news reporter’s and anchors need to be non bias. The main stream media is out of control. And Nora is one of the worst. Does not surprise me at all that ratings are low, she’s rude rude rude.AND SNARKY! But most of all leave her on evening news, please don’t bring her back to CBS Morning news!!!!

  20. Nora O’Donnell is a Communist Hack who only knows liberal propaganda ! If that’s what you want then she is for you !

  21. Jeff should not have been replaced.

  22. Nora’s ok… she’ll find her comfort zone on the evening news. She’s a professional. However, her handlers need to step back and tone down the eye makeup and overly starched wardrobe. Less is more!
    Have to agree with others, though ..Jeff Glor was a keeper!

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