I frequently tell reporters and observers that I believe one of the three evening newscasts has to try something radically different, because the broadcasts are simply too similar. PEJ's "Day in the Life of the Media" documents this problem:

"Perhaps to an even greater degree than we found in the mornings, viewers got strikingly similar information regardless of which of the three evening newscasts they chose." On May 11, "the likenesses so outweighed the differences that the biggest variable among the shows on this night was probably the differences in style and personality of the anchors, NBC's Brian Williams, CBS's Bob Schieffer and ABC's Charles Gibson.

In the first two thirds of the newshole on May 11, the newscasts covered the same news, and in much the same way. In the remaining seven minutes, ABC and CBS had only one 'package' that was unique to their newscasts. NBC had two, and all four were feature stories."

> Also: ABC had 11 stories, CBS had 10, and NBC had 9.

Here's the Network TV section of the report...