This weekend's Globe and Mail features a profile of Kevin Newman, the former host of Good Morning America who now serves as anchorman for "Global National" on the Canwest stations. When it came on the scene in September of 2001, it was believed that even with the handsome Newman, that Global didn't have a chance to compete with the more established CBC and CTV news. The profile revealed some fascinating information about how Global views it's audience. Now Global says its newscast, which airs at 5:30 (CBC and CTV's national newscasts are at 10 and 11, respectively) now reaches around a million viewers.
Who are these viewers? According to the article, 85% of them are female. Even if that statistic is off by 10 percent, that's still an incredible number. If this is the make-up of the audience, then how does the time of day factor into the way the newscast is constructed?
"You're in a different frame of mind at 5:30 than you are at 10 or 11. You're more contemplative. You're quieter. The audience at 5:30 is emotional. You're making dinner. You're tired. You sit down. The TV competitive environment is very different at that hour. At 10 o'clock, your competition is serious drama. At 11, it's local news. At 5:30, it's talk or game shows."Is this true? Is Global's audience really "more emotional" at 5:30? How did they figure this out?
And how does this affect the actual content itself? Newman says that Global National is "a little more energetic, a little more colloquial, a little more Ellen." If only other Lloyd Robertson and Peter Mansbridge could offer sound bites as great as this.
