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Russert Triumphs, Stephanopoulos Sinks
ABC's George Stephanopoulos is rapidly going under, and
instead of throwing him a lifebelt, NBC's Tim Russert is
tossing him an anchor.
ABC's Sunday morning program "This Week," hosted by
former Clinton aide Stephanopoulos, got the lowest
number of viewers in its history - a bare 2 million,
leading the Washingtonian's Harry Jaffe to comment that
the sharp-tongued swimmers (especially NBC?s Tim
Russert) are circling for the kill.
NBC?s "Meet the Press" bragged that it attracted a
whopping 4.3 million-plus viewers, according to Nielsen
ratings for the week ending Sunday, May 11, leading
Russert to issue a press release that noted cattily,
"ABC placed third once again with 2.069 million."
NBC says that the lead of "Meet the Press" over its
competition continues to widen, outperforming CBS by 93
percent, ABC by 108 percent and FOX by 188 percent.
Despite an infusion of big bucks since Stephanopoulos
took over the host job from Cokie Roberts and Sam
Donaldson last September, he has been flying around the
world trying to make news by interviewing foreign
leaders of Canada, Paris and, this week, Cuba, but the
Washingtonian says viewers haven?t always reacted.
With the "This Week" host's head barely above the
ratings water, ABC is acting as if he were floating atop
the waves. "George is doing a terrific job," ABC News
vice president Jeffrey Schneider told Jaffe. "He?s
exactly where we want him to be."
"Russert?s people have been pouncing on Stephanopoulos
ever since his ratings started to swoon," Jaffe wrote.
"They have been churning out press releases about how
they have been showing up ABC week after week. They are
quick to point out that Cokie and Sam?s numbers were way
higher than Stephanopoulos's."
An ABC insider told Jaffe: "What we find most amusing is
Tim Russert?s obsession with George's ratings. We wonder
if he's still performing his old job as network
publicist."
Noting that ABC says it didn?t start this catfight,
Jaffe wrote that "there?s a distinct impression inside
the Sunday talk-show world that ABC said Stephanopoulos
would overtake Russert in a year. Now ABC is pointing
out that it took Russert eight years from his 1991 start
to become number one.
"The question is: Will ABC give Stephanopoulos the same amount of time?" newsmax.com |
