March 10: Day 1 of Conservatives Don't Have Dan Rather to Kick Around Anymore -- otherwise known as Bob Schieffer's First Day as Temporary Permanent Anchor of the "CBS Evening News."
Schieffer is on board to anchor the nightly newscast until CBS Big Cheese Leslie Moonves announces a permanent replacement, whenever that might be.
Comedy Central's "South Park" returned for its ninth season and about 3 million people watched.
(Comedy Central)
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"Only a very few people have held this job," Schieffer noted at the end of his first broadcast. He named Walter Cronkite -- aka the guy who savaged Rather and gave Schieffer a big wet kiss on CNN this week, saying that Rather should've been replaced a year ago and that when the permanent replacement comes in he'll have a hard time not following Rather but following Schieffer. Nice guy. Schieffer called Cronkite "my hero when I was a young reporter."
Schieffer also named Rather, who held the job a record 24 years. Schieffer instead called Rather "my friend for 40 years," adding that he'll remember Rather "for his love of the news and his fierce determination and courage to go wherever the news was breaking."
"It's an honor to be asked to follow them," Schieffer said, noting that he's "not exactly a new face."
About 3 million people watched Comedy Central's "South Park" return for its ninth season Wednesday night at 10.
About 3 million people have been watching the season debut of "South Park" for the past seven years, though there was that dip two seasons ago when only 2.3 million tuned in.
Following "South Park's" return, at 11 p.m., "The Daily Show" pulled in its biggest audience to date of 2005 -- 1.8 million viewers.
Which, to put things in perspective, is about 100,000 fewer viewers than CBS's "Late Late Show," now hosted by Craig Ferguson, averaged during the February sweep.
Which, by the way, is "Late Late Show's" biggest February audience ever, with any host.
Which just goes to show you that the amount of attention paid to a show by The Reporters Who Cover Television frequently bears no relation to how many people are actually watching the show.
Dan Rather beat his broadcast competitors on his final night as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," according to early numbers.
Rather's anchor-chair swan song averaged 7.3 percent of TV households in the country's top markets -- the only numbers available at press time. Meanwhile, NBC's Brian Williams averaged 6.5 percent and ABC's Peter Jennings 6.4 percent.
Based on those numbers, pundits estimated that Rather averaged between 10 million and 11 million viewers, and closer to 11 million -- well above his season average of 7.5 million.
Later that night, CBS's prime-time "Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers" averaged 9.2 million viewers -- slightly better than the 8.6 million that "60 Minutes Wednesday" has averaged in the 8 p.m. time slot this season.
