)

Gibson edges out Williams in battle of the network anchors

(EDITORS: Archive photos for many of the celebrities mentioned in the TUBENOTES column are available on MCT Direct.)

By Gail Shister

The Philadelphia Inquirer

(MCT)

For the second consecutive week, Charlie Gibson’s “ABC World News” edged Brian Williams’ “NBC Nightly News” for first place among 25-to-54- year-old viewers.

No big deal to the world at large, but it’s a streaking comet in the galaxy of network news, where advertisers pay a premium to reach 25-to-54-year-old adults.

Being No. 1 among total viewers makes for nifty bragging rights, but it’s 25-to-54 that carries the freight.

“I’m a little reluctant to call it a trend at two, but who knows,” says “World News” boss Jon Banner. “If it “is a trend, we like where it’s heading.”

ABC scored 2.67 million viewers in the key demographic last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s a mere 30,000 ahead of NBC, but 10,000 more than ABC’s lead the previous week. Katie Couric’s “CBS Evening News” was third with 2.27 million.

“NBC Nightly News” chief John Reiss downplays ABC’s back-to-back wins.

“I don’t make much of it,” he says. “The demo race has always been very close, so it’s no shock if ABC slips by us for a week or two. This is nothing, 50,000 viewers over two weeks. Now if ABC beat us in total viewers, I’d be hiding under my desk.”

Reiss doesn’t have to hide yet. NBC retained its overall winning skein, averaging 9.0 million total viewers compared with ABC’s 8.5 million. CBS limped in with 7.5 million.

Still, all the networks will find coal in their stockings on Christmas (again) as their numbers continue to plunge.

Compared with the same week a year ago, NBC is down 10 percent in total viewers and 17 percent in the demo. ABC is down 2 and 9 percent, and CBS, 5 and 12 percent.

As those elves at ABC helpfully point out, it marks the sixth consecutive week that CBS has declined among total viewers and the fifth time in six weeks it’s dropped in the demo.

“The demo is how we make our money. It’s vital,” says ABC’s Banner. “Total viewers is for bragging rights. Both are important.”

Network-news analyst Andrew Tyndall attributes ABC’s success in the 25-to-54 group more to Couric and Williams than to Gibson.

Some of the younger viewers migrating to Couric’s “CBS Evening News” are defections from Williams’ “NBC Nightly News,” Tyndall says. As a countermeasure, NBC is doing more features aimed at baby boomers, he says.

Tyndall points to “Nightly News”‘ Dec. 11 broadcast as an example. It included two boomer-driven reports, on the spike of Alzheimer’s disease among middle-aged people and on Madison Avenue’s increased spending on ads targeted to boomers.

“If you put your resources into the fight to grow an audience, you try to grow younger rather than older viewers,” Tyndall says. “There’s less payoff in attracting people over 65. Advertisers don’t want them, and they’re not going to be around that long.”

“Nightly News”‘ Reiss disputes Tyndall’s theory.

“We’re not chasing the demo. We’re covering the news. Clearly, we are aware of who our viewers are. We don’t cater to 15-year-olds. If we do some stories on boomers, it’s not an accident. A lot of our viewers “are boomers.”

ABC’s Banner also insists that “World News” isn’t doing anything differently.

“Week to week, the mission of our broadcast has remained consistent. . . . We think that Charlie’s hitting his stride. This is an important, complicated time in our country, and Charlie has the unique ability to make sense of it all.”

—

Mea culpa. Contrary to what was reported in this space Monday, Tom Brokaw’s mother, 89, is alive and well in Southern California.

—

(c) 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer’s World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-12-19-06 1910EST