While watching the coverage of the US Air plane crash in New York, I clicked over to the 'CBS Evening News with Katie Couric'. If you have read my blogs about Couric, I really believe her show has improved dramatically. However, tonight I thought it was pointless to have Couric standing outside to report the news of the NY plane crash. The scene was well over. It was not 9/11. She looked silly standing out in the cold.
Having felt that, I decided to check her ratings. Check out the story from MediaLifeMagazine.
First came the respect from critics and the kudos from her peers. Now long-embattled “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric is finally seeing a bump in the ratings after her well-received coverage of the 2008 election.
Though the newscast remains in third place, well behind ABC and first-place NBC, Couric is on pace for her best season since taking over the anchor seat in September 2006.
Season to date, since Sept. 22, “Evening News” is averaging 6.53 million total viewers, up 6 percent from 6.16 million during the 2007-’08 season, according to Nielsen. And it seems likely that average will grow.
Four of the past five weeks, Couric has drawn more than 7 million viewers, including 7.28 million for the week ended Jan. 11.
True, all of the newscasts have seen some growth in this election/recession year. But Couric is up the most, and her gains in recent weeks have been the most dramatic and certainly the most notable, considering eight months ago rumors emerged that she would be exiting the anchor seat just after the election.
Compared to last April, when that speculation over her future dominated the headlines, Couric is up nearly 2 million viewers.
If she stays on this pace, she will outdraw her first year in the anchor seat, when she averaged 6.74 million viewers.
The newscast’s rise began early this fall, when Couric landed one of the first interviews with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In a bit that became an online viral hit, Palin flubbed one question after another as a calm Couric continued to question her.
Couric’s momentum continued with a series of election pieces over the fall that showcased her considerable talent as an interviewer and reporter. Compared to the other anchors, ABC’s Charles Gibson and NBC’s Brian Williams, Couric aired far more taped packages during 2008, according to the nightly news tracker The Tyndall Report.
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Katie Couric Ratings Increase
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4 comments:
PRES. BUSH WAS OUT OF OFFICE AND ON AIRPLANE TO TEXAS. KATIE WAS STILL TALKING BAD ABOUT HIM AND THE JOB HE DID. I WAS NO LOVER OF PRES. BUSH, BUT KATIE NEEDS TO BE FIRED FOR THE THINGS SHE SAYS.
KC ...it's too bad you have to try and "boost" yourself-by taking others down.
A professional wouldn't have to do that.
You may want to consider another career!
After today's coverage of the inauguration her ratings should go right back down.
The improvement in the program has been remarkable. While it was silly having KC stand outside in the frigid immediate aftermath of the US Airways Hudson River media festival, her CBS Evening News delivery has become reliably serious, steady, and strong. As for any dittoheads who cannot abide her "talking bad" (real powers of articulation there...) about Bush upon his exit, I'd suggest that the end of a failed presidency is a time to tell the truth: Bush's presidency wrecked his party and damaged the country. As far as "taking others down" goes, this vague reference to her interview with Sarah Palin won't do; the problem with the interview was Palin's inability to provide substantive responses. If you don't read anything then you can't answer a simple question such as "what do you read?" That's not "taking others down"... that's asking a question that ought to reveal something about the intellectual habits of a person who claims to be a leader. Palin couldn't answer because she doesn't spend any time informing herself or nourishing her mind. She apparently spends her time shopping and making babies.
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