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January 19, 2005
Moonves Confirms CBS News As Entertainment
At his press conference yesterday at the 2005 Winter Television Critics Association tour, Les Moonves, CEO of CBS News, when grilled by reporters about the future of CBS News and the new anchorperson of the "CBS Nightly News," said: "It's very possible it might not be the voice-of-God-single-anchor that has been in existence for so many years. It might be time to change it up and do something different."
"One of the things we're looking at is how do we make it younger, more relevant, something that younger people can relate to as opposed to that guy preaching from the mountaintop," Moonves continued. "We're dealing with that very issue about making it younger and attracting new viewers."
The swtich of CBS News from a journalistic, news presentation to an entertainment presentation is now confirmed. Not that I'm unhappy to see the creeky, cheecky Rather go--who cares? But it is sad to see CBS contemplating inserting a version of "Entertainment Tonight" into the "Evening News" time slot. It will be just another reason to listen to NPR or watch C-Span, and the chances of CBS, or any network, attracting a younger audience for news are as good as mine getting a date with Jennifer Aniston.
Posted by Charles Warner at January 19, 2005 9:38 PM
Comments
Mediacurmudgeon at January 20, 2005 1:07 PM writes:
A. I don't think Stewart would appear as a regular on the "CBS Evening News" because it would hurt his image as an outsider, which plays so well with his young viewers. B. Even if he did appear regularly, I don't think it would help the ratings because young people don't watch TV at 6:30 pm. TV is such a habit medium and the habit isn't there for young people. If young people wanted the Stewart segment, they would TiVo it or use TiVo to Go and put it on their computers. C. The reason Rather's ratings are sinking is not because his habitual viewers are switching to other news programs, it's because they are dying off.
mike wheeler at January 19, 2005 10:31 PM writes:
so let's pick the cbs evening news ensemble. I'll start with jon stewart playing the role of eric sevareid.