Broadcast News Shedding Viewers by the Thousands

In what could best be described as the broadcast news version of the card game UNO, the networks guys seem to be trying to see who can get rid of all of their viewers first (h/t Hugh Hewitt).

Since taking the baton from Mr. Rather, Mr. Schieffer has actually shed fewer viewers than Mr. Williams, who has lost nearly a half-million (or 5.2 percent) compared with the same period a year ago, when the broadcast was anchored by Tom Brokaw. ABC has lost about as many as CBS - nearly 300,000, or about 3.5 percent - at a time when it was using substitutes for Peter Jennings during his treatment for lung cancer.

With Mr. Jennings's death on Aug. 7, ABC now finds itself in need of a new anchor, though it is not expected to make changes on the scale CBS is contemplating. Still, it could be in Mr. Moonves's interest to let ABC News go first, particularly as ABC decides whether to move one of its most recognizable hosts, Charles Gibson of "Good Morning America," to the evening shift.

Rather, Brokaw and Jennings were the face of network news for many, many years, and I think many viewers were probably more loyal to the newsreader than the network. With the big three now gone from the nightly broadcasts, their viewers have been freed to seek other news sources. They clearly haven't moved from one network to another, since all three are losing viewers by the hundreds of thousands.

Folks used to come home from work and turn on the network news to see what was going on in the world. Thanks to news/talk radio and the Internet, there are abundant sources for the information we used to get from the talking heads. Network news will never again have the place in the family home that it enjoyed back in its heyday of the 60's and 70's.

In fact, UNO might be an appropriate description for their audience size if this trend keeps going.