AP News, May 8th, 2007
It surely wasn't what CBS dreamed about when Katie Couric was hired: the "CBS Evening News" last week recorded its smallest audience since 1987, and probably many years before that.
It also didn't help that the average of 6.05 million viewers came at the beginning of the important May ratings "sweeps."
Meanwhile, ABC's "World News" recorded its widest advantage in viewership over NBC's "Nightly News" since the week Peter Jennings died in August 2005. The victory, ABC's ninth in 13 weeks over NBC, adds to the sense that Charles Gibson is eclipsing Brian Williams as the nation's favorite network news anchor.
"World News" averaged 8.1 million viewers last week (5.7 rating, 12 share). NBC's "Nightly News" had 7.5 million viewers, its fourth-lowest figure since at least 1987 (5.3, 12), and CBS had a 4.3 rating and 9 share. The year 1987 is a benchmark because that's when Nielsen began using its "people meter" technology.
Those are worrisome numbers for networks heading forward, since news viewership normally drops off in the summer. Major news events, of course, could dramatically change things.
In prime time, Fox found itself in an unusual position while "American Idol" is airing _ third place in viewership. CBS won, while ABC recorded its best non-Oscar week since last fall, helped by the two-hour "Grey's Anatomy" special last Thursday.
CBS averaged 11.2 million viewers in prime time (7.3 rating, 12 share), while ABC had 10.7 million (7.0, 12). Fox averaged 10.1 million (6.1, 10), but won among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers it considers most important. NBC had 7.5 million viewers (4.9, 8), the CW had 3.1 million (2.0, 3), My Network TV had 880,000 (0.6, 1) and ION Television had 560,000 (0.4, 1).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 3.6 million viewers (2.0, 3), Telemundo had 940,000 (0.5, 1), TeleFutura had 590,000 (0.3, 1) and Azteca had 90,000 (0.1, 0).
A ratings point represents 1,114,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 111.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of April 30-May 6, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 28.75 million; "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 26.73 million; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 21.23 million; "House," Fox, 21.13 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 19.03 million; "Dancing With the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 18.97 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 17.24 million; "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 17.16 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results" (Tuesday), ABC, 16.26 million; "Without a Trace," CBS, 14.71 million.
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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is a division of CBS Corp. Fox is a unit of News Corp. NBC is owned by General Electric Co. Telemundo is owned by General Electric. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.
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