C’mon Katie Couric – who’s really to blame?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Jeff Derderian, GoLocalProv Media Critic

Each night on Channel12 here in Providence, Katie Couric sits behind the famous CBS anchor desk to deliver a broadcast stuck in the ratings basement.

She’s kind of like the Red Sox of broadcasting to use a timely analogy. Near the bottom of the barrel.

Now, comes word that Couric will exit the anchor chair when her contract expires in early June. So the search is on for her replacement. But one thing that caught the eye of some people was what the 3rd place anchor said was one of the significant reasons for her lack of success/ratings. According to one account in a New York newspaper, Couric said local stations (like Channel 12) are to blame for the reason of her unsuccessful run in the big bad world of network news. That is not entirely true.

Channel 12 helped Couric

If you take a look at some recent ratings numbers – which GOLOCAL did you get a clear picture that Ms. Anchor Lady can’t blame it all on the local stations around the country. Admittedly, a sampling of one week of ratings doesn’t tell the entire story of her tenure but it does require you take a closer look at her words. In other words, when a network pays you millions and millions of dollars per year to anchor a 30-minute newscast you have to be willing to take a majority of the hit when things don’t work.

Centered around the week of April 1st, a look at the ratings for RI showed the following.

At 6pm, just before Couric’s newscast, Channel 12 had a household rating number that was higher than what Couric earned for 4 out of 5 nights. In other words, Channel 12 handed Couric a specific number of viewers but they turned away from Couric.

March 28th:
Channel 12 6pm Newscast: 4 rating
CBS News: 5 rating

March 29th:
Channel 12 6pm Newscast: 7 rating
CBS News: 6 rating

March 30th:
Channel 12 6pm Newscast: 6 rating
CBS News: 5 rating

March 31st:
Channel 12 6pm Newscast: 6 rating
CBS News: 5 rating

April 1st:
Channel 12 6pm Newscast: 4 rating
CBS News: 3 rating

(each rating point represents about 6,200 households watching TV at a particular time)

We have not done an analysis of each TV market across the country. Granted you would for sure find that in some markets the local 6pm news lead in to the CBS Evening News was not helpful to getting Couric viewers. But a further examination shows just how strong Brian Williams is on NBC.

NBC Nightly News Huge in RI

In comparison, looking at the ratings for Brian Williams over at NBC on Channel 10/WJAR – you wonder why Couric even shows up for work.

Here is a look at Williams’ ratings numbers here in Rhode Island for the same time frame as Couric’s and you’ll see what I am talking about.

March 28th:
NBC Nightly News/WJAR: 11 rating

March 29th:
NBC Nightly News/WJAR: 12 rating

March 30th:
NBC Nightly News/WJAR: 9 rating

March 31st:
NBC Nightly News/WJAR: 11 rating

April 1st:
NBC Nightly News/WJAR: 9 rating

No Tears for Katie

It’s clear the person who takes over for Couric (so far rumored to be Scott Pelley of CBS’s 60-Minutes) has their work cut out for them. And in defense of Katie Couric – CBS and it’s news broadcast has maintained a 3rd place spot for a long time.

That said, I guess it would have been a little refreshing to hear from Couric that she was the captain of the ship and for whatever reason she just didn’t get it done. Apparently being “perky” was not enough to move the meter.

But don’t get all teary eyed for her. Katie will be fine. There is talk of her getting a network “daytime talk show” and oh, by the way Couric makes $15-million dollars per year as an anchor. That’s right $15-million per year.

For those of us who put in a day’s work for a weekly pay-check that’s comes to about $288,461.53 PER WEEK – before taxes of course.

Not sure how anyone could live on that right.

Jeff Derderian is a former television news reporter and anchor both in Providence and Boston. He is one of the founders of the Station Education Fund. He can be reached [email protected]