The New York Times reported over the weekend that CBS is in discussions with CNN's Anderson Cooper about taking over Katie Couric's anchor chair when her contract expires next year. Even before CNN and CBS denied it, I didn't believe the story, for one simple reason: It would be like jumping ship from the Titanic to the Andrea Doria, or maybe vice-versa. Cooper just had his worst month ever in the Nielsens, averaging just over half a million viewers a night in February, his ratings down 59 percent from a year ago. In the advertiser-coveted 25-to-54 age demographic, his fall has been even more abrupt: He's lost 62 percent of his audience from a year ago.
About the only thing you can say on Cooper's behalf is that he's got a lot of company: Larry King and Campbell Brown also had their worst months ever in February. Their plummeting ratings are part of a continuing meltdown at CNN, which has lost more than half its audience in the past year and is now running in fifth place among cable news networks -- behind not only Fox and MSNBC but also HLN and CNBC -- in the demo ratings. As the noted ratings analyst Chubby Checker used to say, how looooow can you goooo? I guess we're going to see.
Are you news guys really surprised? When will you discover that like it or not, the messenger is at least as important as the message when it comes to TV News.
Cooper was a perfect fit for THE MOLE.
Couric was the best on TODAY.
Campbell Brown ... very poor with her not so subtle lisp. (She has to have one heck of an agent.)
CNN ... Have you really looked at your talent? Very boring overall. Formats as well.
You are wasting million$ a year because of bad decisions. I would have been fired years ago if I'd made similar bonehead calls.
Reply to me for more details if you'd like.
Rick
Posted by: Rick Andrycha | March 03, 2010 at 03:23 PM
I'm one of the ones that have been considering abandoning CNN...I gave up on HLN a year or so ago about when Mike Galagos (?) came on-air and started having folks call in with their opinion on whatever the outrage of the day was.
Ted Turner debuted a news network that you could turn to 24 hours a day and get the news...and the entire world flocked to it like moths to light. Today, CNN is reduced to entertainment news by its Parent, Time Warner.
And, while there are two sides to every story...usually, only one of them is true. Anyone who has raised children knows this.
Here's a novel concept for a 24-hour news network; Report the news...24-hours a day. I don't give a sh*t about your opinion.
Posted by: Earl | March 21, 2010 at 10:16 AM