In a country of 300 Million people, fewer than 8.5% watched the network evening news broadcasts during the November sweeps period.
If that's a sad commentary on the state of network news, it's also an important reminder of how thoroughly they have failed, and how very unimportant these people are to the country as a whole. In their little Washington insider circle they're big heat, but 91% of the country doesn't pay any attention to what they say.
By way of contrast, over 122 Million people voted in the 2004 election. One could therefore say that the average voter watches the corporate news about once a week. So it's not like a large part of the country is disengaged. It's simply that they no longer choose to watch the broadcasts anchored by Williams, Gibson, and especially Couric. I'll bet Cronkite alone used to draw more than 25 Million, at a time when the population was about three-fourths what it is today.
And it's even worse than that in the 18-54 demographic group, where about 7.6 Million out of 125 Million people watch. Six percent.
The sweeps ratings are below, as listed at the website www.broadcastingcable.com:
• NBC Nightly News: 9.21 million total viewers, 2.3 rating/9 share, 2.79 million viewers in the key demo.
• ABC World News: 9.11 million total viewers, 2.2 rating/9 share, 2.77 million viewers in the key demo.
• CBS Evening News with Katie Couric: 6.74 million total viewers, 1.7 rating/6 share, 2.08 million viewers in the key demo.
By the way, the comments section includes many comments from wingnuts on how this is because they're all so liberal.