from images.meredith.com/lhj
An article in today's LATimes, by Matea Gold, reports that female viewership of the three big morning mainstays, has dropped by ten percent from this time last year. Translation: 450,000 women between the coveted ages of 25-54 have tuned out of their morning dose of Matt, Meredith, and Diane. The reason for this drop? Unclear, says Gold. The article briefly points to Katie Couric's departure from the "Today Show" as one possible cause (this seems unlikely, however, as recent Couric numbers do not suggest that the missing morning audience female audience has moved with her).
Gold also mentions the mommy-blogs, which are drawing female viewers online where they are able to talk about familiar morning television topics, such as child raising and recipes, in a less "staged" atmosphere. "The very issues that get covered on the morning shows are very alive in the blogsphere...the Internet is beginning to cannibalize a lot of these topics," says Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen BuzzMetrics.
Whatever the reason, one wonders how this decline in viewership may effect the proposed fourth hour of the Today Show. Already, there have been suggestions that the extra time should be produced as a stand-alone segment, perhaps to air in the afternoon.
Still, network executives don't seem ready to push the panic button quite yet, attributing the drop in numbers to the recent rise in temperatures that may have drawn people outside and away from their television sets. (Calling Al Gore!).
Or is there another reason altogether? A recent survey found that over half the online game users in the United States are women. Is it time for a morning show video game? Al Roker, activate!
