McManus Toasts Evening News Crew

CBS Evening News EP Rick Kaplan, CBS News & Sports president Sean McManus, and Evening News anchor and managing editor Katie Couric in the newsroom this afternoon.

CBS News & Sports president Sean McManus dropped in to the newsroom about an hour ago to toast the Evening News crew for last night’s double newscasts: one at the regular time and the first-ever prime time newscast at 8pm. “It was just his way of saying thanks to everyone for this run we’ve had,” says an insider. “We weren’t even prepared to get a 1 rating up against ‘American Idol, and it wasn’t even about the ratings.”

Turns out, in younger viewers (A18-49) the 8pm newscast drew a 2.0 rating/5 share to Idol’s 7.3 rating/18 share.

(Photo: Mo Cashin/CBS News)

• Couric 2nd in Total Viewers, 5th in Demo in Prime Time

• The “First Ever Evening Newscast in Prime Time”

> Update: Final national Nielsen ratings (Household Rating/Share, 18-49 Rating/Share):

American Idol
14.2/22 9.4/25

CBS Evening News
3.9/6 1.1/3

Knight Rider
3.7/6 1.8/5

Lost
3.4/5 1.7/4

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.