Don’t Expect A Ratings Surge, Couric Says

Tuesday’s Detroit Free Press:

“Katie Couric didn’t miss a beat Monday when someone described the “CBS Evening News” as being in the ratings basement for years.

‘Well, we prefer to call it the ratings rec room,’ joked Couric, deftly fielding questions from reporters via telephone.”



Couric is trying very hard to lower expectations ahead of her Sept. 5 evening news debut. “I don’t expect there to be a huge ratings surge, and I’m honestly not focused on that,” she told reporters yesterday. “This is a business, obviously, and I’m not naive, but I hope quality begets quantity, and that people will want to see what we’re up to… There are changes obviously at ABC, and I think we all have an opportunity to make the evening newscasts on all three networks more vibrant and to reinvigorate them.”

As former CBS White House correspondent Lee Thornton said to the Baltimore Sun, “it certainly sounds like she was trying to lower expectations. And I think it is awfully smart for her to downplay her brand-new role that way — awfully smart.”

But I doubt Couric’s comments will do much to dampen expectations. After all, analysts at BetCRIS Sportsbook are already making predictions about her premiere viewership…