The new editor-in-chief of CBS News Bari Weiss got off to a horrific start when her Saturday evening Erika Kirk town hall hit the skids on the Nielsen ratings.
Weiss' effort to turn CBS into another Fox News-like network did not pan out as The Independent reports, "According to early numbers from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement, the one-hour CBS News town hall – which aired on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET – drew 1.548 million total viewers and 237,000 in the coveted advertising demographic of viewers aged 25 to 54. Those numbers rose to 1.867 million viewers overall 265,000 in the advertising demo when Nielsen released its final numbers Tuesday afternoon."
What's more, people didn't even watch it on YouTube later. Oliver Darcy at Status notes that "...despite CBS News having 7 million [YouTube] subscribers, video of the event only drew about 175K views."
The great Justin Baragona reported that the regular time slot Weiss occupied with Kirk, "was down 41 percent in the key demo."
Even more troubling for Weiss was that her town hall should have significantly benefited from directly following the conservative ratings bonanza of the Army-Navy game. Viewers changed the channel.
Advertisers were also not happy with this town hall.
Variety reported: "During the hour, commercial breaks were largely filled with spots from direct-response advertisers, including the dietary supplement SuperBeets; the home-repair service HomeServe.com; and CarFax, a supplier of auto ownership data. Viewers of the telecast on WCBS, CBS’ flagship station in New York, even saw a commercial for Chia Pet, the terra-cotta figure that sprouts plant life after a few weeks."
Trying to turn CBS into a Fox News-lite network will not work out, but that's Paramount's David Ellison's vision, it appears.
Weiss' epic fail has not deterred her from trying to become a new Lesley Stahl, and she has promised more of the same programming in the future.
Good luck.
