NEW YORK — "CBS Evening News" marked a low point in a storied history last week — its smallest average audience in at least 10 years, perhaps ever.
The evening newscast with Dan Rather, for several years third in the ratings behind NBC and ABC, has lately been losing even more ground to its rivals.
It was watched last week by an average of 6.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. NBC's "Nightly News" had 8.9 million viewers and ABC's "World News Tonight" had 8.2 million. The weeks around July 4 are generally the least-watched TV weeks of the year.
Discounting holidays and weeks when the news was pre-empted, researchers going back to 1993 could not find a worse week for the "CBS Evening News." Ratings for these flagship newscasts have been steadily eroding, so you would probably have to go back to the early days of television to find a lesser-watched week.
"Clearly, we want to reverse that trend," CBS News President Andrew Heyward said. "I don't think it's something to be overly concerned about. . . . It's an issue but not something I want to overreact to. I think the program itself journalistically is as good as it has ever been."
Rather, 71, has anchored the CBS evening newscast since taking over for Walter Cronkite in March 1981. Cronkite was dominant for years, and Rather spent much of the 1980s atop the ratings before being passed.
His job is not in any danger, his boss said. "He's one of the best broadcast journalists ever," Heyward said. "I don't think he's the issue."
For the first six months of this year, CBS' average evening news audience has dropped 5 percent, from 8.5 million to 8.1 million, compared to the first six months of 2002. This comes despite the war in Iraq, which helped cable news ratings shoot up during the same period.
NBC's "Nightly News" went up 4 percent, from 10.2 million to 10.6 million, from the first half of '02 to '03. ABC's "World News Tonight" rose slightly, from 9.76 million to 9.79 million.
Some analysts suggested an emphasis on hard news by NBC and ABC has outflanked CBS, which always considered hard news a point of pride. Heyward said not every ratings fluctuation can be explained by looking at the content. He said he'll look for tactical improvements, such as promoting the show more aggressively in certain markets, to boost viewership.
A slow week in prime-time was dominated by producers Jerry Bruckheimer (with the "CSI" shows and "Without a Trace") and Dick Wolf (with his "Law & Order" shows). The two were responsible for seven of the top eight shows.
NBC won the week, averaging 7.8 million viewers. CBS had 7.7 million, Fox had 5.8 million, ABC had 5.6 million, UPN had 2.9 million, the WB had 2.3 million and Pax TV had 860,000.
A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of June 23-29, the top 10 shows were: "CSI," CBS, 13.8 million; "Without a Trace," CBS, 12.4 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 12 million; "Law & Order," NBC, 11.5 million; "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 10.5 million; "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," NBC, 10.4 million; "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 10.4 million; "Law & Order" (8 p.m.), NBC, 10 million; "King of Queens," CBS, 10 million; "Friends," NBC, 9.1 million.