Still, there's no question that cable news saw the most momentum during the campaign. NBC executives credited having a sister cable network, MSNBC, on which to showcase their talent in part for the evening newscast's 8% gain among viewers ages 25 to 54, those most coveted by advertisers.
"I think that identification with these reporters over the course of the day just benefits everybody," said Bob Epstein, senior broadcast producer of "NBC Nightly News."
This year's campaign was supposed to serve as a showcase for the network anchors, all of whom were making their presidential election debut. But Brian Williams, Charles Gibson and Katie Couric did not dominate the 2008 race the way their predecessors did in past elections.
The anchor who attracted the most buzz was Couric, who conducted a series of much-talked-about interviews with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. For all the attention, however -- including a parody on "Saturday Night Live" -- "CBS Evening News" still suffered the biggest drop in viewership.
"I don't have an explanation," said Sean McManus, president of CBS News. "I think we did a really, really good job, and I would be lying if I didn't say the ratings were disappointing."
Part of the challenge is the early hour the newscast airs, he said, "an increasingly more difficult time period for people to sit down in front of their television sets."
It's been a chronic issue as American lifestyles have changed. Since 1991, the combined audience of the three broadcasts has dropped from 36.7 million to 22.7 million.
That's still a substantial audience in a fragmented media universe, noted Donchin, who buys ads on all three programs for his clients.
"Even with the loss of viewers, we still see the evening news telecasts as an important place to be," he said. "They're still the tallest midget in the room."
--
matea.gold@latimes.com
