CURIOSITY FACTOR NOT EVIDENT IN PELLEY DEBUT

Ordinarily when a new anchor debuts on an evening newscast, the audience surges initially — if for no other reason than curiosity. When Katie Couric took over the anchor’s desk on the CBS Evening News in September 2006, she averaged 10.16 million viewers in her first week, far exceeding the competition. Nothing like that surge was evident, however, when Scott Pelley replaced Couric last week. He averaged 5.7 million viewers — the same number who tuned in to watch Couric during her final month and slightly below the 5.8 million that Harry Smith drew while serving as interim anchor. Pelley did see an uptick in viewers on Monday, June 6. his first day at his new job– to 6.1 million — but many quickly departed. A worrisome factor about the newscast: Pelley had little competition during the week. On Tuesday and Thursday, ABC’s evening newscast was preempted by the NBA Finals and on Friday NBC’s newscast was ditched because of the Stanley Cup Finals.