Katie Couric ratings plunge at CBS News
June 11, 2007The $15 million or so that CBS is reportedly paying Katie Couric isn’t looking like much of a deal–she has not exactly set the ratings on fire. In fact they recently hit a 20-year low, just 5.5 million viewers which is some 3 million less than what NBC and ABC each get for their evening news shows.
Do the math, each viewer is costing CBS slightly less than $3 just in terms of Katie’s salary. That seems excessive, if I were a shareholder in CBS I’d be hopping mad at such a bad investment.
There’s time to turn this around. But not much time. After all the one-year anniversary of her start at CBS is coming up this fall. They’d better be showing some positive momentum by the end of the summer, if not I bet heads will roll and there will be drastic changes this fall. But I’m betting she’s safe for now, they spent too much time and money bringing her on board.