Network TV Audience Trends

In 2005 the decline of network news viewership continued.

• On the evening newscasts, the audience declines accelerated.
• The lone exception was CBS Evening News, whose audience and ratings rose for the first time in years.
• The general audience declines extended to the highly profitable morning news programs as well in 2005, something worth watching to see if that becomes a trend.
• The audience for prime-time magazines, however, at least those that had survived, stabilized in 2005, a sign perhaps that the genre has completed its thinning-out process.

The audience declines in the mornings and evenings, moreover, took place during a year when major national and world crises occurred at a rapid and steady pace. There was Hurricane Katrina and its failed response, followed by Hurricane Rita; the death of Pope John Paul II and the appointment of Pope Benedict XVI; and the continuing war in Iraq.

The question heading into 2006 was whether network news would begin to make a serious move toward Web newscasts and other innovations that will free the medium from the limitations of television time slots, and if it did, whether that would bring audiences back to network news and attract sought-after younger viewers.