Flavor Flav > Katie Couric

[Tux of Borg]

Katie Couric quickly slips down news ratings slope

Column by Susan Young

Article Last Updated:10/19/2006 11:44:50 AM PDT

 

EVEN NON-NEWS junkies should tremble at the news that last week, the second-season finale of VH-1's "Flavor of Love" garnered 7.5 million viewers, while CBS's evening news with Katie Couric could manage just 7.3 million.

 

To put this in perspective, Couric spent the week telling viewers about a Congressional scandal and Amish schoolgirls gunned down.

 

Flavor Fav, formerly of the rap group Public Enemy, was choosing yet another girlfriend in a dubious field that initially included a woman who defecated onstage because she couldn't make it to the restroom in time.

 

Oh, and Flavor gives the women nicknames because, he admits, after years of substance abuse, his memory is shot.

 

Flavor didn't even have every newspaper and magazine in the country covering his TV series, unlike Couric who popped up on grocery store tabloid covers like she was a TomKat-Brangelina-Vinnifer cocktail. He didn't blast onto the scene with 13.6 million viewers for his first show, only to slip down to about half that amount.

 

Couric's fall wasn't unexpected. She was over-hyped right from the beginning by a network who sold her like she was the last iPod on the shelf. After all, she was the first solo woman anchor of a network nightly newscast in the history of broadcast television

 

Now, for my money, I would rather have seen Soledad O'Brien as the first network anchor. But my money wouldn't pay for a five-second shot with Joan Rivers.

 

O'Brien now anchors CNN's "American Morning" with Miles "no relation" O'Brien. Since coming on board in July 2003, O'Brien has attracted new viewers to the show — which was also the goal at CBS news. She has secured exclusive interviews with people making the news. And we're not talking about tabloid news.

 

I was more than a little embarrassed for Couric when she interviewed Condoleeza Rice for "60 Minutes" and brought up the whole "gee, it must be hard to get a date when you are the secretary of state" deal.

 

On the other hand, Harvard grad O'Brien has gone after former FEMA chief Michael Brown about the impact of Hurricane Katrina, covered the London terrorism attack in 2005 and was the only broadcast journalist permitted to travel with first lady Laura Bush on her 2003 trip to Moscow.

 

While Couric wouldn't have been the horse I put in the big race, she hasn't deserved the glee of people — make that mainly men — who seem only too eager to trumpet Couric's ratings decline and label her a loser.

 

Couric's "CBS Evening News" shot up to first place — a lofty height CBS news hasn't reached in the past 13 years — only to fall back into third place.

 

Still, CBS says it never believed Couric could continue in the No. 1 slot for long. And they were right. For the third week in a row, the news show has landed in the No. 3 spot.

 

Although CBS is quick to point out that it is the only network newscast to gain viewers from last year.

 

Last week, NBC's "Nightly News" averaged 8.8 million viewers, ABC's "World News" had 8 million viewers and CBS had 7.3 million.

 

In the days before the Sept. 5 launch of CBS News with Couric, CBS News president Sean McManus told reporters that no one expected CBS to be No. 1 overnight.

 

"I'm much more concerned about the ratings in September 2007 and 2008 than 2006," McManus said back then. "I don't consider this a failure if in three months or six months we're not in first place."

 

It's almost like he had a crystal ball — or at least a realistic attitude — to sense that people would come and test the waters but might not stick around for the long haul.

 

McManus has said all the network hoped for was something to build on, and it would appear from the latest ratings they may have been successful in that.

 

For the week of Oct. 9, CBS increased 6 percent in households from this time a year ago. Even more important for the bottom line is a jump in younger viewers. Comparing the same week last year, CBS gained more than 11 percent in the adults 25-54 demographic and 25 percent in adults 18-49, which is the gold standard for advertisers.

 

All of this is good news, CBS folks say. I'd still like to see where they might be sitting if the news came on at the more commuter-friendly hour of 7 p.m. — and had O'Brien at the helm.

[SilverNRed]

Flavor Flav > Katie Couric

821403[/snapback]

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[Dante]

Makes perfect sense to me.

[The Senator]

And I used to really like her - she was cute, perky, had great 'stems' - but over time she turned into kind of a, well, I can't say it - but it rhymes with "rich". Plus, she's really put on some tonnage lately - why does she have to eat so much?

[I 90]

Maybe she's hungry.

 

But really Flavor Flav > Katie Couric is a sign of the apocalypse. That VH 1 number has to be a mistake.

 

.

[dib]

I wonder what she looks like naked.

[buckeyemike]

I wonder what she looks like naked.

821825[/snapback]

 

As dib says with every woman under 50 he sees. And since Katie Couric is 49, that gets her in just under the limbo pole.

[buckeyemike]

Now, for my money, I would rather have seen Soledad O'Brien as the first network anchor.

 

821403[/snapback]

 

Mmmm...Soledad. Maybe the best looking woman in TV news right now. I always thought she looked like J-Lo's little sister (even though Soledad is part black, not Hispanic).

 

At worst, she's a close third behind Robin Meade and Kelly O'Donnell.

[loadofmularkey]

I still can't believe New York lost twice.

[dib]

As dib says with every woman under 50 he sees.  And since Katie Couric is 49, that gets her in just under the limbo pole. 

822514[/snapback]

 

 

There are some women over 50 I wouldnt mind seeing naked either.