Slow but hopeful
start for CBS's 'Morning'
'CBS This Morning' averages 2.72 million in first week
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jan 23, 2012
Media people and critics agree that CBS's bold revamp of its longtime No. 3 morning news show to focus on serious news was a good idea, but it could be a while before viewers catch on.
Viewership for the first week of "CBS This Morning," which replaced "The Early Show," was actually down compared to the same week last year.
"Morning" averaged 2.72 million total viewers in its debut week, the week ended Jan. 8, according to Nielsen, down 10 percent from what "Early" averaged the first week of January last year.
And "Morning" remained well behind its morning competition. NBC's always-dominant "Today" more than doubled CBS's audience with 5.54 million viewers, while ABC's "Good Morning America," which has been on the rise, drew 4.86 million.
Still, CBS saw some reason for optimism in the initial numbers. Sampling for the show, which features Charlie Rose in the first, more newsy hour, grew throughout the week, with audience climbing from 2.72 million on Monday to 2.94 million on Friday.
And it improved 5 percent on "Early's" December average of 2.59 million viewers.
Though early ratings are certainly an indication of how well CBS has promoted the new show, it won't be clear for months whether this experiment succeeds.
News viewers change their viewing patterns at an extremely slow pace. Only now, two years after George Stephanopoulos joined "GMA," is ABC finally seeing ratings gains.
And as CBS well knows from experience, trying something different with a news show can be risky.
Five and a half years ago the network promised to shake up the traditional evening news format with anchor Katie Couric. Her show debuted big, then dropped to series lows before hiring a new producer and revamping to look like all the other newscasts.
Only then did her ratings begin to climb.
Whether morning news viewers will be more open to change is certainly a question, but CBS had even less to lose by shaking up "Early."
The show has been in the ratings basement for decades, and several previous revamps, including regular turnover in hosts, had done nothing to lift the program's ratings.
CBS has at least earned kudos from media buyers and critics for trying something new in a daypart that has been stiflingly unchanged for years.
|
|
|
