In his Marketwatch column today, Jon Friedman wrote: “In a remarkably short time, even by American television standards, [Katie] Couric has slipped and her program fell back to a position that CBS unhappily knows all too well — third place, trailing NBC and ABC.”
Friedman cited her third place Sept. 11 ratings as proof. But Couric was #1 on Tuesday, #2 on Wednesday, #1 on Thursday, #1 on Friday, AND #1 for the week (barely).
The column was later updated to clarify that Friedman was referring only to Sept. 11. “The broadcast’s ratings rebounded during the rest of the week,” it also says. In a letter to the editor in chief of Marketwatch this afternoon, CBS responded to the column by saying: “While we wholeheartedly agree that everyone has the right to his or her opinion — including media columnists — we are so stunned by the irresponsibility and lack of accuracy on easily researched facts in Jon Friedman’s column today that we must set the record straight.”
Click continued to read the full letter…
CBS News letter to Marketwatch, Sept. 18, 2006:
While we wholeheartedly agree that everyone has the right to his or her
opinion-including media columnists-we are so stunned by the
irresponsibility and lack of accuracy on easily researched facts in Jon
Friedman’s column today (“Why Couric Already Has Slipped to Third
Place”) that we must set the record straight.
In Katie Couric’s first week as anchor and managing editor of the CBS
EVENING NEWS, the broadcast finished first in every key
measurement-total viewers, households, adults 25-54 and adults 18-49.
The program added 3.74 million viewers while improving upon the other
numbers for the same time period a year ago by +56% in households, +65%
in adults 25-54 and +54% in adults 18-49. By contrast, NBC lost 2.21
million viewers and decreased -26% in households, -27% in adults 25-54
and -25% in adults 18-49, while ABC lost 2.01 million viewers and was
down -24% in households, -30% in adults 25-54 and -26% in adults 18-49.
Allowing for the atypical and inflated numbers for that debut week,
let’s look at the results for the second week: the CBS EVENING NEWS
once again finished first in all key measurements. The broadcast gained
more than one million viewers compared to the same period last year, an
increase of +16%. At the same time, NBC lost nearly that many viewers
(-11%) and ABC more than 270,000 (-4%). And CBS was up significantly in
the most important demographic measurement, adults 25-54, as well, +17%,
compared to the same size loss at NBC and a -13% decrease at ABC. CBS
also led even more impressively in the adults 18-49 demo: up +14%,
while NBC was down -21% and ABC lost -6% of that audience.
Looking at the stats since Katie began, the CBS EVENING NEWS has
finished in first place in total viewers on seven of nine nights, second
once and third once, and its demographic results echo that pattern of
gains and advantage over its competitors. The point is not that we are
leading at this juncture. Most importantly to us, the CBS EVENING NEWS,
which has been in third place for more than a decade, is now a strong,
consistently competitive program. In that, we have accomplished perhaps
our primary goal.
Those results indisputably indicate, contrary to Mr. Friedman’s
assertion that “the nation didn’t respond to her,” that, in fact,
viewers across the nation are responding to Katie in a very positive
way. CBS is substantially up in all measurements, including the key
demographics, while NBC and ABC have posted significant declines. The
early success of the CBS EVENING NEWS doesn’t get much clearer than
that.
We will choose, at this point, to ignore the blatantly offensive and
sexist assertions in Mr. Friedman’s column pertaining to “gravitas.”
Before one has the gravitas to comment on such matters, one should
really be responsible about correctly reporting the numbers.