Katie’s Collapse: ‘CBS Evening News’ Viewership Lowest in 20 Years

May 8th, 2007 8:33 PM

The Katie Couric as “CBS Evening News” anchor experiment appears to be failing, and failing miserably.

As TV Week reported Tuesday (h/t TVNewser): “The news is not good for third-place ‘CBS Evening News With Katie Couric,’ which in the week of April 30 hit its lowest total viewership since at least 1987.”

According to TVNewser’s Brian Stelter, the “at least 1987” qualifier refers to Nielsen ratings not going back any further.

The news wasn’t any better for one of Couric’s competitors either:

[S]econd-place "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams," which hit its lowest performance among 25- to 54-year-old viewers since at least 1987.

Why the collapse?

There was no specific cause for the ratings dips in either "Evening News" or "Nightly News," since there were no major disruptions of either newscast's distribution last week.

I’m sure conservatives across the country could give TV Week ample explanations for the ratings dips if asked.

Update (20:53 | Matthew Sheffield) Couric has really managed to go the extra mile. She even managed to outdo Dan Rather in the race to the bottom. Her ratings are below his bottom point even.