• Los Angeles Times, Friday, November 21, 2008 9:45 AM

If anything could slow the decline of evening news viewership, it should have been this year's riveting presidential campaign. The cable news networks benefited mightily, more than doubling their prime-time audiences this fall.

But the overall number of people watching the network evening newscasts actually shrank slightly in the last months of the presidential campaign, despite the programs' heavy political focus. Viewership was down 280,000 since Sept. 22 compared with the same period last year, per Nielsen.

Of the three programs, the top-rated "NBC Nightly News" was the only one to register an uptick in audience, growing 1%. ABC's "World News" fell 2%, while "CBS Evening News" dropped 3%. Some industry insiders seem glad it wasn't worse. "With all the choices and options, continual erosion is inevitable," says said Andy Donchin, director of media investment for Carat.

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