National News Viewers Turning to Network News
Posted on Fri, Jan 06, 2012 @ 04:14 PM
We've been hearing it for years. The cable news shows are drawing all of the national news viewers. People are no longer interested in "regular" news, but instead will watch only national newscasts that play to their politically left or right leanings. According to a recent Adweek article, during 2011 both NBC and ABC's network evening newscasts were UP over a year ago. In fact, NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams had its biggest year since 2006.
And here's the really interesting part. NBC's newscast averaged almost 9 million viewers a night during 2011. The average audience for ABC World News Tonight was just over 7 million. And "lowly" CBS trailed with a little over five-and-a-half million. Compare that to the average nightly audiences for Fox News (1.84 million), MSNBC (766,000), and CNN (685,000). So yes, last place CBS still out-drew CNN by a ratio of about 8 to 1.
There is an audience right now for national news, and there is an electorate out there looking to the traditional sources for information. Despite all the attention given to the cable noise-makers, and a lot of attention given to some of the cool online gadgetry, when it comes down to the actual business of drawing eyes, there's a clear winner - and it's on your air.