McManus: 25-54 Is Financially The Most Important, & “We’re In A Dead Heat”

Older viewers are not watching the CBS Evening News as much as they used to. But more younger viewers — and that’s what Sean McManus cares about.

“Having more total viewers is more a matter of pride than anything else, but obviously it’s an important sense of pride. But as a practical matter, the most important group financially is the 25 to 54 group, and there we’re in a dead heat with NBC and ABC, which I think is remarkable,” the CBS News prez tells TV Week.

McManus continues: “If somebody had told me we would be tied in the demo at this point, I would have said that would have been very difficult to achieve, because moving the demo that quickly is difficult to achieve. Looking at this set of numbers, how could I be anything but encouraged that we’re accomplishing exactly what we wanted to: start to make the race competitive, which it certainly is.”