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Thursday, June 9, 2016

Serious, Hard Coverage Working For CBS News

CBS News is sometimes an afterthought in the network news discussion. That's especially true in the all-important morning timeslots, when ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today" battle for morning supremacy.

But, according to Brian Lowry at CNNMoney Media, look a little closer, though, and there's been some validation of the division's slow and steady approach, even if it isn't winning the race. And CBS might be heading into a window of opportunity, given its emphasis on hard news reporting during a presidential campaign unlike any in recent memory.

Despite the focus on the jockeying between its rivals, "CBS This Morning" was up 9% for the official TV season -- a stretch from mid-September through late May -- to 3.7 million viewers on average. While that trails "GMA" (4.9 million) and "Today" (4.7 million) by sizable margins, the gap has narrowed, with those shows down 10% and 3%, respectively.

CBS can also point to growth for "CBS Evening News" under anchor Scott Pelley, which averaged 7.4 million viewers for the same period, per Nielsen data, its best performance since he was anointed five years ago.

Moreover, Pelley's show -- although still third in the network tally -- has exhibited gains every year, no small feat in an age where audience fragmentation tends to drag network numbers downward.

"This is not necessarily an environment where you'd expect to see all of these positive metrics," said CBS News president David Rhodes, adding that the network has sought to establish "a serious, hard-news positioning" across its various broadcasts.

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