She may have boosted ratings for SNL, but for CBS, not so much.
Posted by Vox at October 1, 2008 11:11 AM | Media , Sarah Palin , politics
Palin Effect on Ratings Only Modest for CBS
By BILL CARTERKatie Couric’s newsmaking interviews with the Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, last week had only a slight impact on the ratings for her CBS newscast. But if the network could have added up all the other viewers the interviews (and its spoof) racked up, on places like CNN, YouTube and “Saturday Night Live,” Ms. Couric would surely have been more seen and talked about than in any week since she began her tenure as anchor.
Ms. Couric received a rush of attention for the two interviews, in which Ms. Palin, governor of Alaska, spoke haltingly on, among other topics, her state’s “narrow maritime border” with Russia. Clips turned up across the spectrum of television and Web sites.
The first interview last Wednesday, for example, has been viewed more than 1.4 million times on YouTube, while the parody of the interview on “SNL” was streamed more than 4 million times on NBC.com, viewed in full more than 600,000 times on YouTube and in shorter clips many more hundreds of thousands of times.
Still, the “CBS Evening News” gained only about 10 percent in audience from the previous week — and it was actually down from the same week the year before. The newscast averaged just under 6 million viewers for the week, up from 5.44 million the previous week. A year ago Ms. Couric’s program drew about 6.2 million viewers. (CBS was also a distant third last week behind ABC, which won with 8.07 million viewers, and NBC, with 7.98 million.)
The CBS newscast didn’t even record its highest audience totals last Wednesday and Thursday, when the interviews were broadcast. Monday was the network’s best-rated night of the week.
But the week was still considered, by executives from both CBS and its rivals, to be among the best Ms. Couric has experienced since she joined the newscast two years ago. Jon Klein, the president of CNN’s domestic operations, said, “It was brand-building for a woman who is still one of the very best journalists out there.”
Sean McManus, the president of CBS News, extolled Ms. Couric’s interviewing skills, but he acknowledged that Ms. Palin had something to do with the attention. “We benefited from having an interview subject that most of the American public wants to see,” Mr. McManus said. “So the fact is this was a great opportunity, but you have to be able to take advantage of that opportunity, and we did.”
Ms. Couric has more material to come with Ms. Palin. Continuing a series begun during the primary season in which Ms. Couric poses the same questions to each candidate, the program will have questions for Ms. Palin and her vice presidential opponent, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Mr. McManus noted that despite the harsh reviews Ms. Palin has been getting for the interviews with Ms. Couric, no one in the McCain campaign had registered complaints with CBS.
The newscast has made more of an effort to work interviews into the daily content, Mr. McManus said. Monday’s program included not only another interview involving Ms. Couric and both candidates on the Republican ticket, but also interviews with Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders about the failed vote on the Wall Street bailout package.
Ms. Couric has been battered for most of her tenure at CBS News over the sagging ratings of the newscast, and some discussions had been held at CBS earlier this year about her future at the network. Mr. McManus said the network and Ms. Couric were moving past all that.
“I’ve been saying for some time that what we need to concentrate on is the content, not the ratings,” he said. Asked whether the Palin interviews might be a chance to change the ratings momentum of the newscast, he said: “I hope so. We’ll see.”