Poor Katie Couric is still going down - worst week yet.

[leftyladyfrommo]

She was down to five million nine hundred thousand last week - worst yet. And every week her numbers get worse.

Charles Gibson is just getting better and better (he is the one I like to watch) He was at 7,780,000 plus.

I keep wondering how long CBS will let this go on. It is getting really embarrassing for them. All that money out and Katie is a total flop.

And they keep coming out with excuses. But I think the real reason is that Katie is just plain annoying. Its just her - her voice, the way she looks on camera. She is just a flop. And has been a real flop on 60 Minutes, too. She is just not good at that kind of reporting. Doesn't ask good questions, comes across really poorly.

This is so bad I'm starting to feel sorry for her.

[Enrique]

1. Katie will be alright

all that cash should help ease the sting a little.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. Oh, money wise she will be fine.

But talk about a horrible career failure! That would be devastating after so many years of being popular.

[iconoclastic cat]

7. She needs the same advice that Radiohead does:

When you're successful, build on it, don't set it on fire.

[Botany]

3. C-ya Katie "Doing a heck of job Kate .... heck of a job."

We are #3 We are #3!

[BlooInBloo]

4. Can Katie. Catch Keith.

[Az]

5. Katie Couric is symbolic of the problem

News should be about news. Not about ratings.

I swear the news should be a mandated part of any media corporation that is essentially cut off from the management of the corporation but funded by law. As long as management of a Corporation has a say in how the news is run it will always trend towards sensationalism and pabulum.

[yurbud]

6. they put her on 60 Minutes?! Why don't they just call it Hard Copy then?

seriously, when they made her anchor, they might as well have taken the word "news" off the title and just call it "CBS Evening" so it would be like a morning coffee klatch show with recipes for meatloaf and stories about people who put lipstick on their dogs.

There are a lot of good women TV journalist. Katie Couric is not one of them.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. I know. Why on earth did CBS pick her? I will never understand.

The minute I heard that she was in the running I just shook my head.

And these guys are in charge of running a network? I wonder if the guy who made the decision to go with her has been fired.

[calimary]

38. Maybe they thought the female demographic would resonate to Gidget Doing the News.

Doesn't work for me. Besides, I get my news fix from Olbermann.

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. Wasn't that completely awful interview twith Edwards on 60 Minutes?

It was just horrible. "Some Say" will be a qhrase that will go down in history as "the" thing not to say.

[yurbud]

15. she used "some say" the fox news trick? I do remember that she hounded him about wife's cancer

I wonder if she'll do that with Fred Thompson.

[godai]

20. Some people say she's an overpaid, airhead, loser n/t

[yurbud]

30. that said, I would still do her.

but I wouldn't watch her do the news even if I was doing her.

[LynneSin]

33. She did the Fox News trick of "Some people say"

Watch Robert Greenwald's 'Outfoxed' - Fox News is notorious for using "Some People Say" as a way of saying 'we heard one drunk bastard posting on the internets make a comment about this - what do you think about that'

[Blueberry_raspberry]

34. Why'd she use her clout to get an anchor job? Stick with what you know.

She was making a bazillion dollars doing her morning schtick. Should have stuck with it. If she needed a change she should have gone for something else. Don't force yourself on us as a hard news anchor just because you have the clout.

[DeeDeeNY]

8. Why did they hire her ?

How many clueless high-paid network executives didn't think this through and thought she would be worth the money?

[Az]

11. Because news is about ratings

There was also a colossal miscalculation of the target audience. But the company figured that Couric had the audience they wanted so switching her to evening would shore up their numbers. They of course forgot that morning and evening viewing habits tend to differ. They were blinded by her numbers. They were just so big that they figured there had to be carry over. They forgot that there can also be rejection and loss of audience.

Greed. Greed is why they hired her. And the fact that Corporations cannot think long term.

[yurbud]

19. if it was really all about ratings, Jeff Gannon would be a bigger household name than Lewinsky

it's about protecting certain interests and shaping opinion.

[Az]

23. Only in as much as

it affects the power and profit of the Corporation involved.

[yurbud]

27. Bush gives them favors that protect power & profits, so they protect him

[Philosoraptor]

12. If there are no infomercials or t.v. preachers on, I'll watch her.

[leftyladyfrommo]

I can't watch her. She makes me shudder. Not as bad as Bush

does - but pretty bad.

[fasttense]

13. The woman can't seem to pull off looking serious without

looking pouty or evil. She's good with fluff all smiles and snide comments but with real news she just comes across as mean and rude. Sometimes she does this thing where she glares from under her eyebrows and she just looks evil.

Besides she's on the wrong side of the issues. It is no longer "in" to be so pro-administration. Aside from it being dangerous for the country, being such a neocon is out of style anymore, no matter what the remaining third of the country wants you believe.

[leftyladyfrommo]

16. O know. She looks awful when she looks up into the camera. n'/t

[Az]

17. The irony is if we had real news how we feel about her wouldn't matter

The news would be the news. It would be read flat. But the news needs to make ratings. It needs to sell soap. So they have to pitch the right feeling instead of the real information.

[cloudbase]

14. That's life in the big leagues.

n/t

[npincus]

18. using focus group to find out "what audiences want to hear"

on the evening news said it all. The program deserves to die. Bring back Schieffer!

[Rydz777]

21. She is lost without her "perky" schtick. The "evening news" as

an institution has become a farce. In 20 minutes they pretend to tell you things you haven't already heard five times during the day and to explain it all "in depth."

[Blackhatjack]

22. She exhibits no journalistic integrity, and comes across as having no depth....

CBS could have chosen John Roberts or Scott Pelley and been way better off than bringing in Couric for a boatload of money.

Harry Smith would run rings around Katie since he knows how to question people who are being evasive or just plain lying.

Soon CBS will be forced to make a decision on who takes her place. It is a money and numbers game. They are going to take one heck of a beating for this disaster, but the sooner the better given the 2008 Election coverage is a cash cow for the networks -- and IMHO Katie will not cut it.

[sinkingfeeling]

24. I will never understand how CBS, the home of Murrow and Cronkite, ever chose Katie.

[MasonJar]

25. Well, they sacrificed Dan Rather and they deserve everything they get

for choosing a lightweight like Katie to replace such a fine journalist. Rather seemed to be the only talking head who actually felt the war was not on the up and up. That said I have always admired Charlie Gibson. I told myself I would never watch ABC again after the Walt Disney idiots ran that anti-Clinton movie just before the election; so far I have not. However, I might occasionaly relent and watch Gibson. I rarely watch the evening news anyway.

[lpbk2713]

26. I really can't understand how she might be considered a *real* journalist.

Does CBS have a "News" department as such? Or is it all just "Entertainment"?

Either way Couric falls far short of the mark AFAIC.



Ed to ad: If CBS were to replace Couric with Linda Ellerbe I would watch.

[Blueberry_raspberry]

35. She can't. She hasn't paid her dues as a news person.

[KharmaTrain]

28. She's Be On That New CNN Show...

"Newswomen Without Gravitas"...also featuring Paula Zahn, Soledad O'Brien and Contessa Brewer. First show will be an interview with Daryn Kagan.

Have no fear, there'll also be a "Newsmen Without Juevos"...hosted by Anderson Cooper along with Rick Sanchez and John Gibson. The producers of this show are having major problems as the list of qualified stenographers goes way beyond the 52 weeks originally planned.

:sarcasm:

[rusty_parts2001]

31. They can have a confab on how many "Depends"

Larry King goes through in a day.

[Yukari Yakumo]

37. "Newswomen Without Gravitas"

You forgot Nancy Grace on that list too.

Katie should be on a tabloid "news" program, not the evening news.

Side note, how long did that Connie Chung experiment last a few years back?

[Neecy]

29. too many people distrust her

Republicans point to her as a prime example of the 'liberal media' and Democrats dislike and distrust her from her days on the Today show and her appalling interview of the Edwards.

How she can be viewed through such different lenses is interesting, but it's CBS's main problem with her - she's viewed as a partisan by both sides.

I've watched her a few times and I don't think as an anchor that she's terrible, but as an editor she is. There's far more fluff now on CBS than on any of the other two network broadcasts and I've lost interest after about 10 minutes of her show. We can get fluff from cable, from the networks I expect more hard news.

[pacalo]

32. "Some people may say" my theory about Katie Couric is of tin-foil-hat substance...

I'd be interested in hearing some specific examples from a Rethug of liberal-slanted comments from Katie Couric. I watched the Today Show for years, from the moment she was hired until the days that Clinton was going through the impeachment debacle, & I know firsthand that a Rethug couldn't come up with one example from her Today years.

Before the boy king entered his reign of terror in 2000 where "up" is "down" in the U.S., my theory about Dan Rather's demise & Katie Couric's hiring by CBS could easily be labeled as a tin-foil-hat theory, but because I simply don't know for sure & have no proof, it's just a plain theory of mine. It goes like this:

When Poppy ruled the land, he & Dan Rather locked horns on live tv & it was ugly. (Jan. 25, 1988 An interview with George Sr. turns smackdown when Rather calls the Iran-contra-plagued vice president "ineffective" and the newly non-wimpy Bush needles him about the tennis walk-off.) During our comprehensive six-year education about the BFEE, we've learned that they can be unprofessionally punitive when it comes to public slights. Wasn't Rather just doing his job by pointing out the obvious on the news?

Poppy & Babs love Katie Couric & the feeling is mutual. Katie gave the Bushes a lot of airtime when Poppy was in charge & she literally gushed over them. She also gushed over Nancy Reagan as they toured the just-opened Reagan Library, during which Nancy commented that "Ronnie & Pope Paul had a lot in common", with Couric gushing admirably at Nancy.

After all that I've learned about the BFEE & how they operate, I believe that the Bushes got the CBS job for Katie after they got rid of Dan Rather.

[BlueIris]

41. Excellent post!

[Decruiter]

36. Yep, I feel sorry for Katie. Not. Not in my lifetime or yours. n/t

[Yukari Yakumo]

39. BONUS!

According to the Neilsen Ratings, the viewership of the CBS Evening News was the lowest since 1987 as of the first week of May.

:rofl:

This is not just bad, it is :wow: bad. I'd bet good money CBS suits are already looking for someone to replace her.

[charlie]

40. Kinda fun, watching a Tim Russert protege

doing the Hindenberg. Way to go Pumpkinhead, you really know how to pick 'em.

[razzleberry]

42. when there is NPR news ...

and the internet,

I find it hard to believe
5 million TVs are tuned to Katie