If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, ABC News must be feeling very flattered at the choice of Jeff Glor to anchor the CBS Evening News. Glor and ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir are so similar, they're almost clones.
Both men are in their early 40s and grew up in upstate New York. Muir is from Syracuse and Glor is from Tonawanda, near Buffalo. Both graduated from highly regarded upstate schools in the mid-1990s: Muir from Ithaca College, and Glor from Syracuse University. Both got their first TV jobs in the Syracuse market: Muir at CBS affiliate WTVH and Glor at NBC affiliate WSTM. Both left Syracuse in the early 2000s for their second TV jobs in Boston: Muir at ABC affiliate WCVB and Glor at then-NBC affiliate WHDH. After a few years in Boston, both landed network jobs in New York City.
Muir joined ABC News in 2003, anchoring overnight and weekend newscasts and traveling to war and disaster zones around the world, before replacing Diane Sawyer as anchor of World News Tonight in 2014.
Glor started his network career in 2007, reporting internationally for The Early Show and anchoring weekend editions of the CBS Evening News, before being named the permanent anchor of the CBS Evening News last week, replacing Scott Pelley and interim anchor Anthony Mason.
Going Young
So what is CBS trying to accomplish by following ABC's lead and replacing a well-respected but aging anchor with a relatively unknown younger one? It's trying to attract younger viewers. According to Nielsen ratings for mid-October, Muir's show was the only one of the three network newscasts to see overall ratings growth compared to this time last year. But more importantly, Muir's show stayed even with the all-important 25 to 54-year-old viewer demographic. These are the people advertisers want watching, because they buy a lot of stuff.
CBS News, by contrast, fell 14% in this age group compared to last year, with then-59-year-old Scott Pelley on the anchor desk. NBC Nightly News, anchored by 58-year-old Lester Holt, didn't do much better, falling 12% among 25-to-54-year-olds, compared to mid-October 2016.
By replacing Pelley, CBS hopes younger viewers will start to take notice of the nightly news again, since it will now be anchored by a younger and, presumably, more relatable face. CBS president David Rhodes admitted as much, saying Glor represents the best journalistic values and traditions that will carry the Evening News into a digital future. In other words - exactly what ABC News was thinking when it hired Muir.
The problem is, this may be a case of too little, too late for CBS. Younger viewers are turning off the nightly news not because the anchors are old, but instead because it doesn't fit their lifestyles. Two generations - millennials and Gen X - either grew up with, or quickly adopted, time-shifted viewing. They watch shows when they want to, thanks to DVRs and on-demand streaming. The idea of tuning into network news at 6:30 every night, for no other reason than that's the way it's been done for years, doesn't make sense to them. And while these younger viewers could set their DVR to record the news, that defeats the purpose of having a live, up-to-the-minute broadcast.
The Answer Is Digital
If CBS wants to attract and keep younger viewers, the answer isn't to copy ABC's strategy and put a younger face in front of viewers. Instead, producers will have to meet younger viewers digitally, where they live.
NBCUniversal is trying this in a venture with Snap. Stay Tuned, its twice-daily Snapchat newscast, reportedly gained more than 29 million unique viewers in its first month online. NBC says 60% of those viewers are under age 25.
Returning to broadcast news's audio origins - via online podcasting, rather than broadcast radio - affords another opportunity for news to reach a younger audience. A recent study by Edison Research showed that 44% of podcast listeners are between the age of 18 and 34, even though that group only makes up 28% of the population. It's therefore fertile and untapped ground for a daily newscast.
It's obvious from Glor's hiring that the days of the highly-rated voice of God anchors like Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw have passed. But sending in the clones won't give CBS higher ratings. To survive, the network must rethink how it delivers the 6:30 news. Ben Bogardus is assistant professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
16/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: FUJIFILM Execs on GFX ETERNA 55 Camera, Importance of Shallow-Dept...
16/10/2025
Squash's Most Ambitious Broadcast Production To Be Deployed at Comcast Busin...
16/10/2025
Main Street Sports Group Inks Deal With Omaha Productions, Launches Original-Con...
16/10/2025
A Historic Precursor? FIFA, HBS, DAZN Offer an Inside Look at Production of FIFA...
16/10/2025
Prime Video Offers Sneak Peak at New NBA on Prime StudioThe massive 13,000-sq-ft, two-story studio features a LED regulation half court and hoopBy Jason Dachman...
16/10/2025
SVG Remote Production Forum Draws Record Crowd for Visit to PGA TOUR Studios, De...
16/10/2025
BitFire's Ben Grafchik on How Growing Cloud Workflows Are Impacting the Live...
16/10/2025
AI technology is advancing quickly, bringing both new creative possibilities and...
16/10/2025
In 2017, Imani Ellis launched CultureCon, a conference that's become a must-attend event for more than 10,000 diverse creatives and Black professionals to c...
16/10/2025
It might still be a little early to break out the tinsel and mistletoe, but Spotify's already queuing up some holiday magic. This year's Spotify Singles...
16/10/2025
Earlier this year, our in-house publishing imprint, Spotify Audiobooks, put out ...
16/10/2025
VAMPIRE has been integrated onto GM Defenses Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), providing a mobile solution to effectively and affordably counter small drone threat...
16/10/2025
The AgilePod mounted on the host aircraft....
16/10/2025
60% say infotainment systems are a critical purchasing or leasing consideration,...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign, which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and ...
16/10/2025
Roku has added several new features to its user interface and operating system meant to make it easier to discover and personalize content, the company said....
16/10/2025
NEW YORK CNN has announced that its All Access subscription tier will launch in the U.S. on Oct. 28, providing audiences with a centralized destination for CNN&...
16/10/2025
Student Spotlight: Alan Villanueva The graduate student and saxophonist, who performed on Natalia Lafourcades Latin Grammy-nominated Live at Carnegie Hall alb...
16/10/2025
The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced the third cohort of members. The new members include Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the Vegas Golden Kni...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and c...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK Australia's Nine Network and the NHL today announced a media partnership that will bring the world's premier professional ice hockey league to ...
16/10/2025
Parks Associates has released new data showing that nearly half (45%) of U.S. internet homes watch free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services and 89% of U.S...
16/10/2025
TROY, Mich. -New data from J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Study shows that residential wireless internet providers are growing...
16/10/2025
TV's most charming detective drama * Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investi...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Thailand's Legendary Outlaw Returns: Tee Yai: Born to be ...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Christmas Is Just Around The Corner: Home For Christmas Season...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Trist n Ulloa Stars in El crimen de Pazos, the New Netflix Ser...
16/10/2025
ABS Completes Redomiciliation to Dubai Development Authority as Part of Strategi...
16/10/2025
This Saturday October 18 Katja Mia will burst onto the radio airwaves for the first time as she joins 2FM. Katja will be standing in for Bl thnaid Treacy on Sat...
16/10/2025
This October, RT is delighted to support Wexford Festival Opera, Babor International Arts Festival for Children, Open House Dublin and 36 other arts and cultu...
16/10/2025
GeForce NOW is more than just a platform to stream fresh games every week - it offers celebrations for the gamers who make it epic, with member rewards to sweet...
15/10/2025
Across the world, early-career reporters are interrogating systems that shape daily life, from mortuaries and classrooms to the corridors of legal education and...
15/10/2025
St. Louis Blues Pay Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne in New Pregame Open VideoThe NHL franchise worked with production firms 2WEI and 4th Floor CreativeBy Mark J Burns,...
15/10/2025
Cobalt Digital, G3DVu, Proxima Vision, and Telos Alliance Renew Premier Sponsors...
15/10/2025
By Paige Bethmann
Before my grandmother passed away in 2019, I went to visit her in the hospital where she'd been for a few weeks. When I arrived, the nurs...
15/10/2025
Two years ago, Spotify set out to grow the entire publishing industry by making ...
15/10/2025
People turn to DJ for a listening experience that feels personal, dynamic, and j...
15/10/2025
Las personas recurren a DJ para vivir una experiencia de escucha personal, din m...
15/10/2025
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and luminary actor Jeremy Allen White came togethe...
15/10/2025
At Spotify, we're all about supporting rising talent and helping them connec...
15/10/2025
New SBS Documentary Series THE CANCER KILLERS Premieres 4 November on SBS & SBS ...
15/10/2025
SBS celebrates the Festivals of Lights with bold, illuminating stories across th...
15/10/2025
One of humanity's most profound questions continues: Is there any place in our galaxy suitable for life beyond Earth? NASA intends to find out, with the hel...
15/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
15/10/2025
Scality, a global leader in cyber-resilient storage software for the AI era, today announced the advancement of its comprehensive AI ecosystem certification pro...
15/10/2025
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today unveiled key highlights of the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, scheduled for Feb. 15 19 at the Westin Rancho Mirage Go...
15/10/2025
At NAB Show New York 2025 (Stand 244), Interra Systems will showcase the future of media QC, monitoring, and captioning, highlighting its award-winning, AI- and...
15/10/2025
Grass Valley today announced that RMC BFM, part of the CMA-CGM Group and France's third-largest private media group, has chosen Grass Valley's productio...
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, ABC News must be feeling very flattered at the choice of Jeff Glor to anchor the CBS Evening News. Glor and ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir are so similar, they're almost clones.
