Most of the news yesterday was dominated by the news that Charles Gibson would leave as anchor of the ABC Evening News and be replaced by Diane Sawyer. Since almost no one under 60-years-old watches the news in the early evening which makes the programs unattractive to advertisers, the news about the ABC Evening News does not mean much.
Only 1.93 million people ages 25 to 54 watched the ABC Evening News on the average day the week of August 17. Total viewership was more than seven million, so a lot of senior citizens tuned in. That may be why most of the marketing messages on the program are for Viagra and other pharmaceuticals. If the drug industry disappeared, so would the budgets for network news shows.
NBC, owned by GE (GE), which is the leading news program in the evening, did not do much better with 2.1 million viewer ages 25 to 54 and a total viewership of 7.4 million.
The evening news viewers are old and probably getting older. Young Americans do not set aside 30 minutes to catch up on the day’s events. They get the information on the Internet and can get it there 24 hours a day. Diane Sawyer is 62 now, and that makes her the perfect candidate to take the anchor’s job. She will be broadcasting to her contemporaries.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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