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Nightly News Programs Likely to Settle Down

Published on July 13, 2006 | Email this article

The nightly newscasts from the networks have seen major change in the last year and a half. CBS and ABC have hired second and even third new anchors, and NBC remains in first place but has seen its average margin of victory shrinking steadily in recent weeks, according to Media Life. As Charles Gibson settles into the anchor chair on ABC and Katie Couric comes aboard CBS in September, the turbulence in the nightly news may settle down.

According to Andrew Tyndall, a network news analyst, Couric’s arrival at CBS may increase the amount of sampling that viewers do of rival networks, but it is unlikely that she will convert non-news viewers to the news in that time slot.

The news audience is most likely to grow most, he says, not based on who the anchor is but during periods of heavy news events such as wars, disasters, elections, and so on.

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