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Saunders: Will CBS stick with Couric?

Published October 30, 2006 at midnight

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The audience-ratings honeymoon for Katie Couric is over - at least on the national level.

Now the hard part of her marriage to CBS News begins.

Following smashing audience success for its debut in early September (Nielsen figures ranged from 10 million to 13 million viewers nightly), the CBS Evening News has fallen back into third place behind NBC and ABC.

The half-hour is averaging around 7.4 million viewers nightly. NBC's average is 8.8 million and ABC shows 8 million.

On the positive side, the CBS Evening News is drawing 400,000 more viewers (a 6 percent increase) than the Bob Schieffer-anchored show of a year ago.

And the demographics in the important 18-54 category also have slightly improved.

Still, the second-guessing has started.

Did the network make a mistake by moving a woman, particularly Couric, into the male-dominated world of evening-news anchoring?

Frankly, it's too soon to know.

Did you really expect Couric's initial high audience numbers to hold?

I didn't.

For viewers, newscasts are no different than entertainment shows.

When a program featuring a widely known personality hits the schedule, the curiosity factor takes over.

Then it's back to viewing as usual.

The fact that Couric is anchoring a newscast is not necessarily a reason for diehard Brian Williams' fans to shift from NBC.

The success or failure of Couric will be determined after a year. If by next October the news ratings and sponsor interest are below the current levels, CBS and Couric will have major problems. The Couric era can then be deemed a failure.

The network reportedly spent more than $13 million promoting Couric's move from NBC to the CBS Evening News - an amount that could have been used much more resourcefully.

This barrage of pre-promotion, which led to an overload of media coverage, set up Couric for a quick ratings fall.

Couric was hired as a news anchor. She wasn't going to change things in Iraq or solve the illegal immigration problem. CBS built expectations far too high.

Still, the newscast has legitimate problems.

A major flaw is the much-maligned - and deservedly so - Free Speech segment.

This tiresome gimmick, more appropriate for a cable news hour, doesn't belong in a short, 22-minute network newscast, which attempts - often feebly - to cover the world between commercial breaks.

Also, Couric too often seems personally distraught by the nasty news of the day.

Who can blame her?

The world's in a nasty mess and many viewers share Couric's concern.

But Williams and ABC's Charles Gibson have more of a straight-on, that's-the-way-it-is persona when delivering the headlines.

Couric is not a weeper. But too often she seems personally impacted by the terrible news of the day,

That worked on Today.

But is it an asset on a nightly news show?

Couric is an intelligent newsperson and an excellent interviewer.

But as the months roll by, will her compassion be a liability?

Meanwhile, CBS News President Sean McManus is trying to dissect the reasons for the gradual decline of Couric's initial high ratings.

He told USA Today that the third-place positions of local news on CBS stations around the country was one reason for the drop-off.

McManus could not use Denver's CBS 4 as an example.

October Nielsen figures show the weeknight CBS Evening News (5:30 p.m.) has a respectable 12 share – second place behind the NBC Evening News (16 share) on 9News.

That's a larger audience than the CBS newscast registered on CBS 4 in recent years with Dan Rather and Schieffer.

ABC's World News on Denver's 7 ranks much lower than the national average, showing an 8 share.

(An audience share is a percentage of the more than 1.4 million Denver-area TV households watching television and tuned into a particular program.)

Actually, the October ratings show there's not much local dial- twisting between the 5 and 6 p.m. news hours.

9News' local 5 p.m. half-hour registers a 16 share while CBS 4 shows a 13 share. 7News has a 7 audience share.

The November sweeps begin Thursday, meaning more emphasis will be placed on local news ratings.

TODAY'S NOSTALGIA: On Oct. 30, 1988, NBC premiered Favorite Son, a miniseries set against the background of Washington politics. Cast included Robert Loggia, Harry Hamlin and Linda Kozlowski.

Dusty Saunders is the broadcasting critic. or 303-954-5137