The opening of the final segment of Amanda Davis’ unusual three-part series about her own life. CREDIT: CBS46
By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Friday, May 20, 2016
Veteran TV anchor Amanda Davis gave CBS46 a major ratings lift for at least one night as she dug deep about her depression and alcoholism.
The impact was greatest on Tuesday, the first day of her three-day series. That night, the 11 p.m. news on the CBS affiliate drew a 4.2 rating, more than double the 1.8 rating the station had received in May up to that point.
That’s more than 150,000 people in metro Atlanta.
I forgot to ask for the ratings of the other broadcast networks so I don’t know where the affiliate ranked each night but CBS46 news director Larry Perret said via email that the station did hit No. 1 on Tuesday in overall viewers.
Among the target 25-to-54 viewership audience, CBS saw a more than quadruple increase in ratings. After averaging a 0.5 rating in May through May 16, the Davis piece drew a much stronger 2.2 Tuesday.
CBS 46’s promotions department created an effective promotional teaser video, which featured Davis announcing she was an alcoholic with haunting music and words like “denial” and “rock bottom” popping up. More than 400,000 people saw the video on Facebook by the time Tuesday rolled around and it eventually passed 1 million.
The station’s 11 p.m. news is its strongest in terms of audience, often beating the third-place newscast at 11 Alive. (CBS46 generally runs in fourth place most other time slots but has been aggressively promoting its evening anchors Sharon Reed and Ben Swann on billboards around town. )
On Wednesday, after the “Survivor” season finale, CBS’s 11 p.m. news drew half the audience from Tuesday. Her second part helped attract a 2.2 rating overall and a 0.6 among 25-54 year olds.
On Thursday, after a very weak “Rush Hour” performance at 10 p.m., CBS’s 11 p.m. newscast and Davis’ final segment brought in numbers much closer to the network average: 2.1 rating for all viewers and 0.4 among 25-54.
