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‘G.M.A.’ Beats ‘Today’ Over a Full Season

September 27, 2013 by

As Ben Sherwood, the president of ABC News, pushed “Good Morning America” in a heated competition with NBC’s “Today” show for ratings supremacy, he had three goals: first, to win just one week; second, to win one of the television industry’s so-called “sweeps” months; and third, to win for a full television season. He dubbed it “the trifecta” in conversations with colleagues.

And on Friday, ABC achieved it: a full-season win for “G.M.A.” for the first time since the early 1990s.

G.M.A.’s lead over “Today” has been acknowledged several times already, both by the network and by the viewing public. Still, the full-season triumph is something that ABC chose to trumpet on Friday as the network news division positioned itself as one that is growing, or at least holding steady, at a time of fracturing television audiences.

The 2012-13 television season, as measured by Nielsen, started in mid-September 2012 and ended earlier this month. The final seasonal viewership figures for the morning shows were released on Friday. They reflected a once-in-a-generation change: “G.M.A.,” which had lost to “Today” for 852 straight weeks before notching a one-week win in April 2012, has taken a decisive lead among total viewers, with an average of 5.3 million viewers on a typical weekday. That is nearly 700,000 more than the “Today” show, which had an average of 4.6 million.

One season earlier, “Today” had 5.1 million viewers and “G.M.A.” had a little under 4.9 million.

“CBS This Morning,” which was rebooted in early 2012 and is now hosted by Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell, had an average viewership of 2.77 million. For CBS, that’s a big improvement: one season earlier, the network had 2.44 million viewers in the mornings.

Among 25- to 54-year-olds, the demographic that really determines success or failure for morning shows, the ratings race remains tight. “G.M.A.” had almost 2 million viewers, about 85,000 more than “Today.”

According to ABC, “G.M.A.” has not led “Today” for a full season since the 1993-1994 season.

Some, though not all, of “G.M.A.’s” gains can be attributed to missteps by the “Today” show, including the dismissal last year of Ann Curry, a longtime member of that show’s cast. “Today” is now trying to lure former viewers back; it has resisted the temptation to dismiss any other cast members, and instead has added two, Willie Geist and Carson Daly. Earlier this month it introduced a remodeled studio and a new graphics package.

Some of “G.M.A.’s” gains can also be attributed to content choices. The show has become more entertaining in the last few years, sometimes eschewing serious news for stories about sensational court cases, celebrities and trends, especially after 7:15 a.m. While its rivals dismiss the show as being too tabloid-oriented, ABC defends its story selections as a reflection of what viewers want to see when they wake up.

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“G.M.A.” has tried not to get too comfortable in first place. Through a spokesman on Friday, Mr. Sherwood said: “Our immediate goals are to keep building on our strengths, to stay hungry and humble, and to keep our eyes on the prize.”

When the 2012-13 season was starting, the “G.M.A.” co-host, Robin Roberts, was in the hospital, undergoing a grueling bone marrow transplant. In February she returned to the show on a part-time basis, but it was not until this month that she resumed hosting full-time.

While the mornings are the most lucrative day part for the network news divisions, the evenings remain essential as well, and there NBC ended the season ahead, as it has for 17 years. “NBC Nightly News” had more than 8.3 million viewers on an average night, 700,000 more than ABC’s “World News.” ABC has crept quite close in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, however, and in July actually beat the NBC newscast for one week. NBC has avoided a repeat loss since then.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/business/media/gma-beats-today-over-a-full-season.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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‘Steve Harvey’ Talk Show Gains an Extension

June 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Steve Harvey’s daytime talk show, which had its debut last September, will remain on television through at least 2016 thanks to a series of deals announced Wednesday by its distributor, NBCUniversal.

The long-term deals demonstrate how successful the show, “Steve Harvey,” has been for NBC and for the local stations that carry it. While Katie Couric’s talk show, “Katie,” was introduced at the same time as Mr. Harvey’s and initially drew slightly higher ratings, “Katie” was accompanied by much higher expenses and expectations. Her ratings have slipped in recent months, while Mr. Harvey’s have grown. His show has impressed people in the syndicated television industry, while Ms. Couric’s show has underperformed.

Both shows were previously renewed through 2014. Now “Steve Harvey” has been extended two more years, both by local stations owned by NBC and by other station owners. In some cases Mr. Harvey’s show will move into more advantageous time slots after 2014. (Something similar happened after the health-themed talk show hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz became a hit upon its premiere in 2009.)

NBC said Wednesday that it had completed about two-thirds of the long-term distribution deals for “Steve Harvey.” It expects to complete the remainder soon.

Mr. Harvey’s show has been particularly helpful to the 10 NBC stations that NBCUniversal owns in big cities like New York and Chicago. By drawing a substantial audience in the afternoon, it has helped the shows that come later in the day.

“’Steve Harvey’ has strengthened our daytime lineups and proven to be a strong lead-in to ‘Ellen’ and, in turn, our local newscasts,” Valari Staab, president of the NBC-owned stations, said in a statement, referring to the talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.

Since September Mr. Harvey has had an average of 1.96 million viewers a day, while Ms. Couric has had 2.3 million. The biggest such show in syndication, “Dr. Phil,” has had 3.95 million viewers.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/business/media/steve-harvey-talk-show-gains-an-extension.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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NBC’s Ratings Plummet From First to Worst

February 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The ratings of last September through December, when NBC shocked the television industry by winning 13 of 15 weeks, have dissipated to numbers so small they have not been seen before by any broadcast network — certainly not during a rating period known as a sweeps month, when networks present their strongest programming.

When the official numbers are completed Thursday, NBC will finish this sweeps month not only far behind its regular network competitors, but also well behind the Spanish-language Univision. No broadcast network has ever before finished a television season sweeps month in fifth place.

NBC executives expected a falloff after the N.F.L. season, but last December they expressed hope that some momentum could be sustained. Now, the network is playing by the silver-linings playbook.

“This February was tough, but thankfully the fall did as well as it did,” said Jeff Bader, the chief scheduling executive for NBC. “If we had the fall we were expecting — which was an improvement, but not to be No. 1 — this month would have been a lot harder to take. This is just frustrating.”

It is also likely to be costly. NBC executives previously acknowledged that their entertainment operation has been losing hundreds of millions a year. The financial picture is exacerbated by the dearth of popular shows NBC owns that it can sell in syndication, an area that generates hundreds of millions in profits for competitors, especially CBS.

Advertising executives note that ratings this month on many shows are so low they may force NBC to offer a spate of what are known as make-goods — free commercials to cover shortfalls from rating guarantees. And in less than three months NBC must unveil a new schedule for advertisers, one that will emphasize the improvements of last fall, but will also contain a short list of holdover shows with attractive ratings to sell. That will put great pressure on the lineup of new shows NBC selects.

The network’s prime-time record this month is a litany of ratings sorrows: Shows that looked like hits last fall, like the new comedy “Go On,” have collapsed. New shows, like the comedy “1600 Penn,” started weak and have fallen fast. NBC even had the lowest-rated new network drama of all time, “Do No Harm,” which was rated 0.9 in the 18-49 category for its premiere this month and fell to 0.7 in its second week.

It was canceled after two episodes.

Perhaps more painful, because it was the favorite project of NBC’s top programmer, Robert Greenblatt, has been the fate of the Broadway drama “Smash.” Introduced last winter with great expectations — and a hugely expensive promotion campaign — “Smash” returned three weeks ago to audience indifference. Last week’s episode could not eke out even a 1 rating among viewers aged 18 through 49, the audience NBC sells to advertisers.

Over all, the network’s ratings have fallen so far that no episode of any show on NBC in February came within one million viewers of a show on PBS: “Downton Abbey.” And forget approaching the numbers of a cable hit like AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

Nothing NBC has put on in prime time has matched even the appeal of the “Talking Dead,” a show with people simply discussing “The Walking Dead.” That show managed a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 audience. NBC’s best prime-time number for the month has been a 2.1, achieved by episodes of “The Biggest Loser” and “The Office,” a comedy that is about to go off the air.

Remarkably, the best-rated show on NBC all month has been “Saturday Night Live,” which produced two original versions in February, both times hitting a 2.3 rating, topping everything else on the network. “SNL,” though, is not even in prime time — and it is 38 years old.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/business/media/nbcs-ratings-plummet-from-first-to-worst.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Media Decoder: Robin Roberts Returns to ‘Good Morning America’

February 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Robin Roberts waved to fans outside the Good Morning America studio on her first day back at work following a bone marrow transplant.Michael Appleton for The New York Times Robin Roberts waved to fans outside the Good Morning America studio on her first day back at work following a bone marrow transplant.

6:00 p.m. | Updated “Now,” Robin Roberts said to the staff of her top-rated morning show, “Good Morning America,” right after it wrapped on Wednesday, “we can resume regular programming.”

Ms. Roberts had just made a television comeback unlike any other, as a host of the program for the first time since she was forced to leave it in August to fight a life-threatening illness. The return, promoted two weeks ahead of time by ABC, was celebrated by fans, tens of thousands of whom sent well-wishes on social networking sites. Many of them watch the program specifically for Ms. Roberts, who is, according to industry research, the most-liked host on any American morning news program by a wide margin.

On Wednesday it was obvious why. She beamed with pride and gratitude as she returned to the broadcast, defying the expectations of some in the television industry who had predicted she would be unwilling or unable to anchor again.

The broadcast gave ABC fresh optimism that “Good Morning America,” with Ms. Roberts, 52, back in her chair, can continue to beat NBC’s “Today,” which last year was dislodged from the top spot in the morning ratings after 16 straight years.

Most of all it closed a chapter in a story that started almost exactly one year ago, when Ms. Roberts felt exhausted while covering the 2012 Academy Awards in Los Angeles for ABC. Subsequent tests by her doctors found that she had myelodysplastic syndromes, known as M.D.S., a rare and debilitating blood disorder, most likely resulting from her treatment for breast cancer five years earlier.

After taking a leave in August she underwent a bone-marrow transplant in September. Back then Ms. Roberts told viewers she’d return to “Good Morning America” as soon as she could. But no one knew for sure how long she would be away, if she survived at all. Nor could anyone at ABC think of any precedents for a leave like hers. “There was no handbook for this, but I’m very pleased with how we handled it,” Ms. Roberts said in an interview after Wednesday’s broadcast.

The closest things to precedents were weeks-long maternity leaves, and the one thing ABC was determined not to repeat: a departure like that of Peter Jennings, the longtime “World News Tonight” anchor who abruptly came onto his newscast one day in April 2005, announced he had lung cancer, said, “I will continue to do the broadcast,” and never came back.

Jennings died four months after making the announcement, and the circumstances were traumatic for viewers as well as for ABC staff members. For that reason — as well as for the more obvious ones involving ratings and reputation — ABC decided to make Ms. Roberts a part of the show even while she was in the hospital recuperating from the transplant.

George Stephanopoulos and the other co-hosts mentioned her by name at least once every half-hour, and they shared her Twitter messages and photos on TV regularly. On Wednesday everyone involved emphasized that she was returning now only because her doctors say she is ready.

Nonetheless morning TV is big business, so there were grumblings that ABC had exploited her condition for ratings gains. Last July, two weeks after NBC removed Ann Curry from “Today,”spurring a big lift in the ratings for “Good Morning America,” the “Today” executive producer Jim Bell wrote in an e-mail to senior producers that the competition was “using Robin’s illness and the accompanying public interest in her health as a new weapon in its arsenal.”

More recently some media critics have censured the show for overcovering Ms. Roberts’s impending return. But if online chatter is any indication, that sentiment wasn’t widely shared by the viewers who have been rooting for Ms. Roberts and for her television family, which remained firmly No. 1 among total viewers while she was away. But among the 25- to 54-year-old viewers that help the shows make money, “Good Morning America” stayed only slightly ahead of “Today,” and within ABC, there is a quiet hope that Ms. Roberts’ return will propel the program forward.

Ben Sherwood, the president of ABC News, ducked questions about the ratings on Wednesday but said, “This experience has reminded us to take nothing for granted, and, like Robin herself, in many ways we feel like we’re just getting started.”

He also said, “After 173 very long days, it’s beautiful to get back to business as usual with our full team and two more wonderful regulars.” By “regulars” he meant Elizabeth Vargas and Amy Robach, who took turns filling in while Ms. Roberts was away. They will continue to show up frequently on the program, he said, in part because Ms. Roberts is not yet back at full strength. She’ll re-emerge gradually, for a few days a week at first, depending on how she and how her doctors feel about her progress. At least one thing is certain: she will be back in Los Angeles to cover the Academy Awards this weekend.

Mr. Sherwood, when asked if Ms. Roberts would ever return to a five-day-a-week schedule, observed that she’s an athlete first and foremost (a star college basketball player and former ESPN sportscaster) who “wants to play every day.” He added, “I think nothing would make Robin happier than getting back to five days a week.”

Even the most cynical “Good Morning” producers — who requested anonymity because they were not authorized by the network to speak — pointed out that Ms. Roberts’s story could have ended very differently. “It doesn’t matter about ratings” on Wednesday, one such producer said in between emotional expletives. “She is alive!”

Interviewed by People magazine, which put her on its cover last week, Ms. Roberts said she was warned that “at one point I would feel like dying.” Shortly after the transplant, that came true, she said: “I was in a pain I had never experienced before, physically and mentally. I was in a comalike state. I truly felt like I was slipping away. Then I kept hearing, ‘Robin! Robin!’ ” The voice belonged to a nurse, who was “pleading for me to stay here,” Ms. Roberts said. “And thankfully I did. I came back.”

Ms. Roberts said she didn’t feel especially tired after her two-hour hosting blitz on Wednesday. She did notice some problems with her vision, however, since she had not been under the bright studio lights for such an extended period since August.

Her return was even cause for a temporary cessation of hostilities between “Today” and “Good Morning America.” “Today” sent a gift basket to the ABC studio and welcomed Ms. Roberts back during its 8 a.m. hour.

Don Nash, who succeeded Mr. Bell as executive producer of “Today” two months ago, said in an e-mail on Tuesday night, “All of us at ‘Today’ wish her continued good health and years of hitting the 3 a.m. snooze button!”

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/robin-roberts-returns-to-good-morning-america/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Media Decoder Blog: Chris Cuomo Leaves ABC for CNN

January 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

2:00 p.m. | Updated Chris Cuomo, a former news anchor on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” is on his way back to the morning shift, this time for CNN.

The cable news channel said Tuesday that it is developing a brand-new morning show to replace “Starting Point,” the news and interview show it created just a year ago. The new, unnamed show, with Mr. Cuomo as a co-host, will start sometime in the spring.

Many observers in the tight-knit television news industry, including some at CNN, expect he will be paired with Erin Burnett, who like him is a former morning co-host. But in a news release on Tuesday, CNN said only that Mr. Cuomo had been hired to “have a major role in a new CNN morning show.” It declined to comment on Ms. Burnett’s status.

The moves come just one week after Jeffrey Zucker formally took over CNN Worldwide, following his appointment to president last November. The morning time period is a top priority for Mr. Zucker, and the television industry has been paying close attention to his plans because he led NBC’s “Today” to ratings highs two decades ago, starting a 16-year winning streak for the show.

Last year, he was a sounding board for Ben Sherwood, the president of ABC News, as ABC’s “Good Morning America” finally put an end to the “Today” show’s streak.

TMZ first reported Mr. Cuomo’s impending move on Monday night. Mr. Cuomo said in a statement, “This is a fantastic opportunity to do what I value the most and hopefully to do the work that I do best.”

His brother, the Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, said in a radio interview Tuesday morning that Mr. Cuomo “had a lot of fun at ABC,” but CNN would “work better for him personally.” Governor Cuomo added, “He’ll be on every day, so there will be a certain relevance to what he’s doing.”

Cuomo has been the co-anchor of the once-a-week ABC newsmagazine “20/20″ for the past three years. He previously spent three years as the news anchor on “Good Morning America.”

Mr. Cuomo was in the running for the co-host chair on “G.M.A.” when Diane Sawyer left the morning show for the evening newscast “World News” in 2009. But the co-host job went instead to George Stephanopoulos. At CNN, Mr. Cuomo will have a new opportunity to lead a morning newscast.

CNN could use the help. “Starting Point” had just 234,000 viewers on a typical morning in 2012, its lowest total viewer number in more than 10 years. Of those, just 96,000 were between the ages of 25 to 54, the crucial demographic for cable news advertisers.

“Starting Point” is anchored by Soledad O’Brien, whose political interviews were widely praised last year despite the program’s relatively low ratings. CNN tacitly acknowledged on Tuesday that Ms. O’Brien will be moved out of the morning time slot. A spokeswoman said in an e-mail, “Soledad is very important to the network, and we’re discussing various options with her.”

As it seeks a bigger audience in the mornings, CNN risks irritating the audience it already does have by making sweeping changes. After all, “Starting Point” had its start just 12 months ago.

Ms. O’Brien’s supporters say the show never received the internal support and the external marketing it was promised; they imply that the show wasn’t given a chance to succeed. But top executives at CNN and its parent company, Time Warner, have been dissatisfied with the show and they believe a shakeup is in order.

Meanwhile, pairing Ms. Burnett with Mr. Cuomo would create another hole in CNN’s weekday schedule. Ms. Burnett is best known for her years at CNBC, where she and Mark Haines were at the helm of the midmorning markets newscast “Squawk on the Street” from 2005 to 2011. She is now the anchor of the 7 p.m. hour on CNN. But the hour has suffered like “Starting Point” and the rest of the channel’s schedule.

Representatives for Ms. O’Brien and Ms. Burnett declined to comment on Tuesday.

Mr. Cuomo is the third boldface name from ABC to be hired by CNN in the past year. The first was John Berman, a longtime ABC correspondent, who now co-hosts “Early Start,” the predawn newscast that precedes “Starting Point.” The second was Jake Tapper, the chief White House correspondent for ABC.

Mr. Zucker was instrumental in signing Mr. Tapper, who will begin anchoring a daily program for CNN later this year. The executive in charge of talent at CNN, Amy Entelis, is also a transplant from ABC. She arrived at CNN about three months before Mr. Berman.

Now, Mr. Zucker is figuring out where they and CNN’s other hosts fit on the channel’s schedule. Mr. Zucker, who rose from “Today” to run all of NBCUniversal in the 2000s, was hired two months ago to revitalize the ailing channel. He officially started last week, and he seems to be wasting no time.

On Tuesday, CNN Worldwide’s managing editor, Mark Whitaker, stepped down, stating in a e-mail to staff members that Mr. Zucker “deserves his own team and management structure and the freedom to communicate one clear vision to the staff.” Mr. Whitaker was a top lieutenant of the prior CNN Worldwide president, Jim Walton.

Mr. Zucker has declined interview requests about his plans, but a talent announcement last week — the poaching of the sports reporter Rachel Nichols from ESPN — was a hint of what’s to come. He said Ms. Nichols would host a weekend sports program and called her hiring “an important step in expanding the range of programming and storytelling on CNN.”

The channel was starting to do that even before Mr. Zucker arrived. Late last year, it ordered documentary series from Anthony Bourdain and Morgan Spurlock. The two series will have their premieres this spring.

Thomas Kaplan contributed reporting.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/abcs-chris-cuomo-is-said-to-jump-to-cnn/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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