"I CONTEMPLATED, 'PEACE OUT, HOMIES'"
Katie Couric says that viewers want network evening news programs to run for an hour, instead of 30 minutes.
It's been ages since I last saw a network news broadcast, since I tend to work jobs that schedule me for the evening hours. However, I still feel like a typical consumer of news; believe me, I have no trouble hearing what's going on. If I ever feel like I need to check in with the news, there's the Internet, cable TV, and radio news, all running 24 hours a day. Who needs the nightly news?
A long time ago, when switching between the two or three TV stations in your town was a huge pain in the ass, the evening news broadcast made a lot of sense. You would sit through it to get to the good stuff--the other stations were only showing news anyway, why change the channel?
Then again, cable doesn't have 100% market penetration, newspapers require effort to read and dispose of, and sites like abcnews.com can crush a 56k modem flat; so major network news programs have their uses. And, when you compare the saturated nature of the news-junkie to the relative desert inhabited by the average person, it's easy to see how a mere 30 minute broadcast under-serves those average people.
Still, with network news being a ratings loser (at least when compared to entertainment programming), most experts agree that a 60 minute evening news broadcasts are not likely. But, um, Katie, maybe you could do everyone a favor and get your old pals at "The Today Show" to cut that bullshit-deluge down from 180 minutes, okay?
It's been ages since I last saw a network news broadcast, since I tend to work jobs that schedule me for the evening hours. However, I still feel like a typical consumer of news; believe me, I have no trouble hearing what's going on. If I ever feel like I need to check in with the news, there's the Internet, cable TV, and radio news, all running 24 hours a day. Who needs the nightly news?
A long time ago, when switching between the two or three TV stations in your town was a huge pain in the ass, the evening news broadcast made a lot of sense. You would sit through it to get to the good stuff--the other stations were only showing news anyway, why change the channel?
Then again, cable doesn't have 100% market penetration, newspapers require effort to read and dispose of, and sites like abcnews.com can crush a 56k modem flat; so major network news programs have their uses. And, when you compare the saturated nature of the news-junkie to the relative desert inhabited by the average person, it's easy to see how a mere 30 minute broadcast under-serves those average people.
Still, with network news being a ratings loser (at least when compared to entertainment programming), most experts agree that a 60 minute evening news broadcasts are not likely. But, um, Katie, maybe you could do everyone a favor and get your old pals at "The Today Show" to cut that bullshit-deluge down from 180 minutes, okay?
