Telling The Truth About Couric’s Ratings

“Ahem. CBS is NOT taking a pounding from the inside; it is taking a pounding from VIEWERS, who are not watching,” an e-mailer writes after reading these posts. “Don’t blame truth-tellers in the newsroom. It is, after all, part of their job to recognize reality.”

So here’s reality. The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric hit rock bottom the week of March 26, with 6,157,000 average viewers. CBS gained a few viewers the next week.

The last two weeks, the broadcast has averaged 6,570,000 viewers — two million behind ABC and NBC. This time last year, Bob Schieffer was delivering 7,000,000.

Even on huge news days, the gap doesn’t change. Last Monday, when Couric anchored from Blacksburg hours after the Virginia Tech mass shootings, CBS delivered 8,060,000 — a decent increase, but nowhere near NBC’s 10,389,000 or ABC’s 10,174,000…