“In its first month on the air, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric has achieved unprecedented double-digit, across-the-board gains in each of 14 different Nielsen measurements compared to the same period last year,” CBS says in a press release this morning. “Most significantly, in the most important demographic used in television advertising sales — adults 25-54 — the broadcast is up a remarkable +35% and in first place.”
Click continued to read the full release…
THE “CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC” POSTS UNPRECEDENTED
DOUBLE-DIGIT, ACROSS-THE-BOARD GAINS IN ITS FIRST MONTH
IN YEAR-TO-YEAR COMPARISON
In the Most Important Advertising Sales Category of Adults 25-54,
The CBS EVENING NEWS is Up +35% and in First Place
CBS Also Leads in Adults 18-49 and Posts an Increase of +31%
Growth Reverses Historic Pattern of First-Month Losses When Anchors Change
NBC and ABC Suffer Significant Losses in All Categories Year-to-Year
In its first month on the air, the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC has achieved unprecedented double-digit, across-the-board gains in each of 14 different Nielsen measurements compared to the same period last year. Most significantly, in the most important demographic used in television advertising sales–adults 25-54–the broadcast is up a remarkable +35% and in first place. In adults 18-49, the CBS EVENING NEWS is up an impressive +31% and in first place. In the first month, the broadcast has also grown in households (+21%) and total viewers (+22%) compared to the same period a year ago.
The data in this release includes the four weeks beginning Tuesday, Sept. 5, minus Friday, Sept. 29; fast nationals for that day will be available later this afternoon. The year-ago data also excludes the final Friday of the month-long measurement period.
Notably, the trend of year-to-year gains in all demos has held steady throughout the four-week period. Even with the first week’s atypical and inflated numbers extracted, the average of weeks two through four tell the same success story: CBS was up +17% in adults 25-54 and tied for first place and was up +23% in adults 18-49 and tied for first place compared to the same period last year. Both NBC and ABC were down double-digits in both categories. Through the first four days of last week (week four), CBS was up +38% in adults 25-54 and was up +45% in adults 18-49 compared to the same period a year ago. Both NBC and ABC experienced double-digit drops in both measurements. Additionally, CBS’ gains included households (+10%) and total viewers (+13%), while NBC and ABC both posted declines through the first four days of last week.
When the first week’s data are deleted, the CBS EVENING NEWS’ results in households and total viewers also follow the same pattern of growth: the broadcast is up +12% in households and up +12% in total viewers versus the same period a year ago. And, in week four only, those numbers were up +10% and up +13%, respectively. Both NBC and ABC experienced declines in both of those measurements.
Additionally, the ratings history of network evening news anchor changes reveals a clear pattern of audience loss in the first month versus the same period a year earlier. Compared to the five anchor changes of the past two decades, Couric has dramatically reversed that pattern with the broadcast’s remarkable growth.
As the CBS EVENING NEWS has posted large gains across-the-board, both NBC “Nightly News” and ABC “World News” have suffered substantial losses in all of those Nielsen measures.
For the four-week period beginning Sept. 5, 2006, the CBS EVENING NEWS posted double-digit gains in the following 14 categories compared to the same period a year ago. The same timeframe yielded dramatically different results for NBC and ABC, as the following chart illustrates.
Category CBS Change NBC Change ABC Change
Households +21% -15% -12%
Total Viewers +22% -14% -11%
Adults 25-54 +35% -23% -20%
Women 25-54 +32% -23% -20%
Men 25-54 +40% -18% -16%
Adults 18-49 +31% -25% -17%
Women 18-49 +27% -26% -18%
Men 18-49 +17% -13% -21%
Adults 18+ +20% -17% -14%
Women 18+ +18% -17% -16%
Men 18+ +23% -17% -10%
Adults 55+ +16% -14% -10%
Women 55+ +11% -14% -10%
Men 55+ +22% -15% -10%
The history of network anchor changes confirms the CBS EVENING NEWS’ achievements to be equally as remarkable as the broadcast’s demographic and audience growth, especially at a time when the competition for viewers has increased dramatically. In the last two decades, a change in anchor has resulted in modest gains the first week but a decline in the first month’s average. In households, the changes of the first-month average of the new anchors compared to the same period a year earlier are: Dan Rather/CBS (1981)–down -4%, Peter Jennings/ABC (1983)–down -7%, Tom Brokaw/NBC (1983)—flat, and Brian Williams/NBC (2004)–down -4%. Additionally, Charles Gibson’s first four weeks as anchor of ABC’s “World News” (four weeks beginning May 29, 2006) was down -7% compared to the same period last year.*
Comparatively, Couric’s first-month average in households is up +21%.
* The anchor changes included in this data are: Dan Rather replacing Walter Cronkite at CBS (March 9, 1981); Peter Jennings replacing Max Robinson/Frank Reynolds/Jennings at ABC (Aug. 9, 1983); Tom Brokaw replacing Roger Mudd/Brokaw at NBC (Sept. 5, 1983); Brian Williams replacing Brokaw at NBC (Dec. 2, 2004); and Charles Gibson replacing Elizabeth Vargas/Bob Woodruff (May 29, 2006).