Another liberal mainstream media giant is facing major problems with its ratings. CBS News is in a freefall — and rumors are starting to swirl that the bosses want a change at primetime.
The once-proud network is seeing the ratings of its flagship “CBS Evening News” sink to new lows since former “CBS This Morning” host Norah O’Donnell took over the anchor chair this summer.
Now she’s on the hot seat — and she might not be hosting much longer based on the numbers.
Compared to the same week last year, “CBS Evening News” ratings are down a whopping 17 percent, to just 5.232 million viewers.
And that’s not even the worst of the news for the network.
In the key demographic of viewers – the age 25 to 54 group that advertising execs salivate over – ratings have plummeted 25 percent to just 971,000 viewers.
By comparison, ABC’s “World News Tonight” finished in the top ratings spot with 8.227 million overall viewers, or nearly 60 percent more than “CBS Evening News.” ABC also had 1.623 million viewers in the key demo, nearly 70 percent more than CBS.
NBC’s “Nightly News” came in second with 7.365 million total viewers and 1.561 million in the key demo.
People simply aren’t tuning in to “CBS Evening News.”
Page Six reported that O’Donnell is earning between $7 million and $8 million a year for the gig, more than double the $3 million salary of predecessor Jeff Glor.
Along with a new face behind the desk, the show was given a new look when O’Donnell was brought onto the program, which also moved from New York to Washington.
“Why not try something that could distinguish us and have the ability to bring us closer to the people who make decisions that are in the news?” CBS News President Susan Zirinsky told Associated Press over the summer. “That’s not constricting. That’s liberating. That opens channels for us.”
Zirinsky seemed to recognize that viewers are sick of media elites pushing a leftist agenda via the news, especially in their relentless coverage of President Donald Trump, and vowed to be different.
“People are hungry right now for straight-ahead news,” she said. “We’re not coming at you with a point of view. We don’t have an adjunct part of our network that has a point of view.”
But that’s not the reality of the situation.
Last week, for example, the network spent much of its coverage of the death of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-M.D. talking about Trump.
NewsBusters found that nearly half of the segment was on the president.
Despite Cummings’ long and storied career in politics as a Civil Rights activist, much of the network’s discussion was on his criticism of Trump and his role in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
Moves like that help explain why the AllSides MediaBias chart didn’t rank CBS as the “straight-ahead news” promised by Zirinsky.
They’re listed as left-leaning – a rating also earned by the network’s long history hostility toward Republicans.
In 2004, for example, the network was forced to retract a story about President George W. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service record that was based on questionable documents.
Anchor Dan Rather retired the next year, then filed a lawsuit against the network, which was ultimately dismissed but did nothing to help the company’s reputation.
Since then, the wheels on the anchor chair have been put to use: Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric, Scott Pelley, and Glor all spun past the desk before O’Donnell.
But given her struggles to attract viewers, her chair could be wheeled off next.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”