• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 12, 2007

What is both wrong and right with ABC's "World News," "NBC Nightly News" and "CBS Evening News" seems to be a not-always-working theory of lead-in programming and leading news stories.

For the first time since they started going head to head, the Brian Williams- anchored NBC show lost out to ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" -- this for the entire month of February. At the same time Couric's CBS show, which had an initial blast of publicity and ratings last September, is back where the show has always seemingly been -- in last place. Actually, at lower levels than when Bob Schieffer had the chair.

What's to blame? As a lead-in for Brian Williams, it could be the lack of strong local news programming -- so much so that in New  York senior executives have shifted the popular 11 p.m. news team to also work the 6 p.m. shift.

But that isn't all. There seems to be a categorizing of network news: NBC has  "serious" news, ABC has "family-" and "women"-oriented news, while CBS doesn't seem to have the gravitas of either.  Family and women news win the day.

CBS stations spent a lot of money to grab the high-rated "Judge Judy" this season, putting the program in the early fringe afternoon time period -- all to help the programming that follows. But while "Judy" continues to get good ratings, these haven't necessarily moved over to CBS' local newscast or for Couric, which airs after.

So with "Judy," the argument is that lead-in programming doesn't have any effect any longer. On the flip side, "Ellen Degeneres," on the NBC stations, which was moved to the same early afternoon time period, is suffering because of the competition against ABC's "The Oprah Winfrey Show."  Could all this be why "NBC Nightly News" is suffering as well?

NBC claims that there is nothing wrong with its news coverage. In fact, just better marketing is needed, showing off the differences among the network broadcasts -- just some tinkering, say executives.

Tens of millions of dollars of advertising are on the line, and executive producers at both NBC and CBS have lost their jobs over their shows' respective performances.

What remains is ABC with its family- and women-oriented newscast, and the easygoing personality of Gibson. For this show the lead-in theory makes sense, because of one of the most dominant personalities on TV.

"Oprah" is all about family- and women-oriented issues.  Right now, for ABC, the formula is working.