Is it the woman thing, or is it Katie Couric?
Cory Bergman May 13th, 2007
That’s the headline of a NYTimes.com story that takes a hard look at the ratings decline at CBS Evening News since Katie Couric took the anchor chair. “Maybe we underestimate the huge shift this represented,” said Sean McManus, the president of CBS News. “It was almost a watershed event to have a woman in that chair.” He added, “There is a percentage of people out there that probably prefers not to get their news from a woman.” Others point out that perhaps it’s because of Couric’s bubbly morning show background or the fact the reworked newscast pulled away from hard news. You be the judge…
Earlier: CBS News SVP says viewers “seems to prefer the news from white guys”
12 Comments Add your own
1. Pat | May 13th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Connie Chung and Katie Couric created nosedives in CBS ratings because:
A). They are performers (weak ones at that) then being solid journliasts.
B). They rode the coattails of their predecessors in other tv outlets.
C). Both A&B
D). All of the above.
2. Rob | May 13th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
I agree with Pat, and I have to add that this is the part that disgusts me the most about this whole situation, that any criticism of Couric is immediately dismissed as little more than an aversion to women in general. It’s been said many times, but there are several women who are fit to be network anchors; Katie Couric, however, is not one of them.
3. Adrian Monck | May 14th, 2007 at 12:39 am
I would be less quick to blame misogynistic viewers and more quick to blame format and content changes. A radical presentational shift (which Couric’s appointment represented) needed most things to stay the same…
4. El Dangeroso | May 14th, 2007 at 4:55 am
Katie’s voice grates on me. I don’t care how much experience you have or how much you know, if you’re unpleasant to look at and you sound like an annoying aunt or a stammering clown, I won’t stick around for your journalism, no matter how important.
Ever notice how Wolf Blitzer breathes during sentences, but never between them? Yeah, he’s hard to listen to for extended periods.
5. Swift Loris | May 14th, 2007 at 5:04 am
IMHO, Diane Sawyer could have pulled it off despite also having been a morning show host. Not that she can’t be bubbly and perky, but she’s perfectly capable of mustering the necessary gravitas. There probably would have been some audience resistance at first, but she could have overcome it pretty easily.
I can’t remember whether Elizabeth Vargas had the co-anchor chair long enough to know whether NBC was getting decent ratings. I don’t particularly care for her, and she doesn’t have Sawyer’s innate star power, but I suspect she could have managed it solo as well if she’d been given a good shot at it on a well-produced program.
6. Ron Stitt | May 14th, 2007 at 6:46 am
Hello, CBS. Did you ever consider she’s not doing as well as Charlie and Brian because she’s a/not as good as they are and b/she and CBS have done so many goofy things trying to be cute about this that they’ve made complete a**es of themselves. And now they lay off their failure on misogyny. Pitiful. Pack it in. Go home.
I’m saying this btw, but I don’t know what I’m saying; didn’t write it. Blame my intern.
7. Allen | May 14th, 2007 at 7:14 am
As a viewer, I would have chosen Paula Zahn over Katie Couric any day.
8. Aaron | May 14th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Female journalists who would have had far better chances of success anchoring the CBS evening news:
- Diane Sawyer
- Christiane Amanpour
- Cokie Roberts
- Charlayne Hunter-Gault
- Campbell Brown
If CBS had ever looked at tape of Katie anchoring NBC Nightly News (which she did from time to time), they would have realized that a straight newscast just isn’t her strong suit. The only chance she would have had at succeeding at CBS is if they’d tossed out the anchor desk completely, along with the traditional intro-package-tag newscast format.
CBS had a great thing going when Schieffer was filling in — he turned it into a newscast about the news. He talked to reporters, his delivery was authoritative but not condescending, and he knew when to get out of the way. The ratings were going up!
They should have looked for a permanent anchor, male or female, who could build on that success. Any of the women above could have done that.
I can’t imagine a worse transition than Bob to Katie. If you want to build a newscast around her, fine, but you’ll have to build a ‘Today’ at night format for it to have any chance of success.
9. Eric | May 14th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Network TV News as we know it is a sunset industry, so who can blame CBS for taking some risk and trying something different. What’s the alternative, really?
Given the demographics of people who watch the broadcast, a little reluctance to hear it from a woman isn’t totally implausible.
10. Amanda | May 14th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Dear the New York Times,
The local CBS affliliate’s weekend anchor is a reporter who is clearly uncomfortable sitting in a studio reading a prompter - which makes their newscasts rather painful to watch - therefore I don’t particularly like watching them.
In your eyes, “is it a man thing, or is it this reporter/anchor who shall remain nameless?”
Its the person, not the gender.
11. John Proffitt | May 14th, 2007 at 9:42 am
As Michael Rosenblum is wont to say, “TV news sucks.” Can’t disagree there.
News on television is a big fat “me too” industry and CBS thought the way to break away from the pack was to pick Couric. But the underlying news was the same. So they start to tweak and make the news softer, mushier, more palatable to people without teeth or brains. Wrong move.
The way to break away from the pack is to behave completely differently from the pack, to reinvent television journalism, right from the reporters in the field up to the studio anchor (assuming you keep the anchor). The news must be gathered and organized and presented in a wholly new — and substantive — way. Couric couldn’t do that. Indeed, any single anchor choice — male or female — couldn’t do that.
The kind of changes that would bring me, as a late 30’s viewer, into the fold will have to come from the top and jammed down the throats of all the preening self-important “journalists.” I want news, not flourish. I want insight, not babble. I want information, not celebrities. I want to be treated as though I actually graduated from high school, college and grad school.
Right now, with Couric, the CBS Evening News feels more like “Big Brother” (the other CBS abomination) than a newscast.
12. Safran | May 14th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
It’s the woman, but it’s not The Woman.
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