...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
From The Philadelphia Enquirer, rumor has it that Kiki Couric, "an expensive, unfixable mistake," may get the boot next year.
[T]he former star of NBC's Today has failed to move the Nielsen needle on No. 3 Evening News since her debut seven months ago."A bad fit from the start" is an understatement. To be absolutely fair, I would also use the descriptors "lightweight" and "clueless bimbo."In a bottom-line business like television, that's a cardinal sin. Already-low morale in the news division is dropping, says a veteran correspondent there.
"It's a disaster. Everybody knows it's not working. CBS may not cut her loose, but I guarantee you, somebody's thinking about it. We're all hunkered down, waiting for the other shoe to drop."
Seven correspondents, producers and executives at CBS and other networks interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of the Couric situation.
Couric and CBS were a bad fit from the start.
"From the moment she walked in here, she held herself above everybody else," says a CBS staffer. "We had to live up to her standards. . . . CBS has never dealt in this realm of celebrity before."
Media experts predict Couric's ratings won't improve anytime soon, given that news viewers tend to be older and averse to change.
Couric, 50, draws fewer viewers than did avuncular "interim" anchor Bob Schieffer, 20 years her senior. Much of the feature-oriented format she debuted with is gone, as is her first executive producer, Rome Hartman.
"The broadcast is an abject failure, by any measure," says Rich Hanley, director of graduate programs at the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University.
"They gambled that viewers wanted a softer, less-dramatic presentation of the news, and they lost. It's not fair to blame Couric for everything, but she's certainly the centerpiece and deserves a fair share."
CBS Evening News this season averages 7.319 million total viewers, down 5 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Couric's viewership has dropped nearly 30 percent since her Sept. 5 premiere week, when she averaged an inflated 10.2 million viewers and led CBS News to its first Nielsen win since June 2001.
Have you watched Couric lately? Talk about deer in the headlights, she makes Kathleen Blanco look like the embodiment of "confidence" by comparison.
CBS had the opportunity to climb out of the whole they were in, but instead chose to keep digging.
Posted by: Casca on Apr. 23, 2007Yet another unqualified affirmative action hire.
And she really is dumb. I'd rather listen to Barbara Boxer or Nancy Pelosi and those two are painfully stupid.
Posted by: blu on Apr. 23, 2007" I'd rather listen to Barbara Boxer or Nancy Pelosi..." Now that's really below the belt. I cannot stand Katie Couric, but I'd rather go on a 4-week holiday with her than spend an hour with Pelosi, or that incredible nincompoop Barbara Boxer. As insufferable as she is, Couric isn't even in the same universe as that moron Boxer.
Posted by: DBrooks on Apr. 23, 2007It's a scandal that national media covered up that Couric read out scripted, plagiarized personal memories of getting her first library card. Come on! She has to read scripted personal memories?!
Can you imagine if, say, Limbaugh or O'Reilly were caught, dead to rights, doing such a thing? They would be roasted on Leno and Letterman every night for a solid month - or more. They would be roasted on Sat Night Live and The Daily Show for weeks and weeks and weeks. Their scripted personal memories would be re-referenced, for ridicule, for a decade. Hollywood Movies would reference their deception.
Posted by: gcotharn on Apr. 23, 2007Scheiffer was great; I'd go bck to listen to him...
Kiki should go back to morning hosting and learn to cross her legs again.
Posted by: shelly on Apr. 23, 2007I think it'd be really funny if they'd let James Lipton from Inside the Actors Studio be the news anchor. I watched the "Hell's Grannies" sketch from Monty Python on You Tube today and it's not that far off from today's t.v. news.
Posted by: Joules on Apr. 23, 2007"I cannot stand Katie Couric, but I'd rather go on a 4-week holiday with her than spend an hour with Pelosi, or that incredible nincompoop Barbara Boxer."
LOL.
OK, you got me, DBrooks - that might have been too much :-)
Posted by: blu on Apr. 23, 2007"I cannot stand Katie Couric, but I'd rather go on a 4-week holiday with her than spend an hour with Pelosi, or that incredible nincompoop Barbara Boxer."
I'd rather toss her salad after an all U can eat Taco Bell™ buffet!
Posted by: Radical Redneck on Apr. 24, 2007LOL @ "Have you watched Couric lately? Talk about deer in the headlights, she makes Kathleen Blanco look like the embodiment of "confidence" by comparison."
Posted by: Mark on Apr. 25, 2007Growing up during the days of the big three and only the big three I can muster little sympathy for Couric or her ilk. At some point I discovered what we were fed every night was not without a left lean and that the anchors had no regard for political thought outside the confines of the Hudson and East Rivers.
Now we truly have Freedom of information and can pick from alot of newscasts or a different source all together. It's all still biased but at least we can choose which way it's slanted. I wish National Review did a news program every night!
Did I get off subject again?
Posted by: Mike C. on Apr. 25, 2007