Eat The Press

Two Very Different Newscasts: NBC & CBS

Huffington Post |  Rachel Sklar |  Posted Thursday December 14, 2006 at 03:20 AM

Last week, the "CBS Evening News" with Katie Couric had its lowest ratings yet, dropping to 7.45 million viewers. This was 240,000 viewers less than the previous month's low of 7.69 million. The "NBC Nightly News" with Brian Wililams remained in first place, though ABC closed the gap between them to its narrowest margin yet. Last night, I watched both the NBC and CBS broadcasts (I can only tape/watch two programs at once - sorry, Charlie), and didn't even need to crunch the minute differences between them because one giant, glaring difference was so huge: The top story. Yesterday, on the day when South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson fell ill with an apparent stroke and seemed in danger of being replaced by a Republican handpicked by Republican governor Mike Rounds, thus changing the balance of power in the Senate from Democrat to Republican, the CBS news led with...holiday shopping. (12 shopping days left 'til Christmas!). NBC's Williams, meanwhle, led with the Johnson story, pulling in updates from correspondent Chip Reid and sitting with NBC Washington Bureau chief Tim Russert to discuss the move and its ramification. (See vid.)

This is not a one-off choice — someone had to have adjudged holiday shopping as a better lead-in for the news than the possible surprise upset in the Senate, and as Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News Couric ought to have seen why that was the less significant and compelling story. It's decisions like this that are causing people to criticize the broadcast, or simply to leave. You can't blame Katie for losing her dazzling Sept. 5, 2006 lead &mash; her debut wasn't just a newscast, it was a TV event. And it's too early to blame her for being in third place, just like Dan Rather and Bob Scheiffer. But she's the Managing Director. So, for scheduling "Holiday Shopping!" before a Senator's stroke and the potential Republican power shift it may entail, she gets the blame. Katie, take note.