Next up… the CBS Evening News with Sean Penn!
The backlash against Katie Couric probably began when her biggest scoop of her first show was “the first official photos of TomKat’s daughter, Suri.” Sensing the former Today host was turning the news broadcast into Entertainment Tonight, people began tuning out the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and tuning in more-serious news broadcasts, like ABC’s World News Tonight with Charles Gibson and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.
Heck, some have even migrated to Fox News and reruns of Friends, according to the latest numbers on the Drudge Report, which monitors such things.
Many in the media are trying to make Couric’s gender the issue behind her low ratings, including her CBS bosses. I disagree. It’s too easy for out-of-touch network execs to blame “backwards” middle Americans, who they assume “aren’t comfortable with a female anchor.”
Bull. Between Fox News and CNN, folks have enjoyed and watched female anchors for a long time now. Greta Van Sustren and Catherine Crier are successful examples, as well as - to a lesser extent - Nancy Grace. The big difference between Couric and them is that they took their newscasts seriously from day one.
While Couric has made successful efforts to lend gravitas to her news broadcasts since then, it seems not to be making an impact with the average viewer; her numbers are now lower than “Broadway Dan” Rather’s darkest days, when he was at his least credible.
How much longer will CBS tolerate the failed Couric anchorship? She’s less than a year into a five-year deal, so it all depends on how much they want her out, which right now, they don’t.
But if CBS does eventually change anchors, here’s hoping they go LESS Hollywood next time, and more Washington Press Corps. Because if they keep going in this direction, by the time Katie Couric is relegated to selling Orlando rental property, we’ll be seeing CBS promote the heck out of the CBS Evening News with Sean Penn… Or Jon Stewart. Which would, of course, be idiocy.
Then again, Penn’s been “in the field” as a journalist more than Couric has; and Stewart has more credibility.
Tags: Brian Williams, CBS Evening News, Charles Gibson, Jon Stewart, Katie Couric, Orlando rental, Sean Penn
