ABC Happy to Relieve Moonves of Older Viewers

"We're happy to have any viewer at all watch World News with Charlie Gibson," says Jon Banner, the show's executive producer.

But of course! Who wouldn't be happy to have any viewer?

Oh, right. That would be CBS chief Les Moonves, who implied he didn't mind losing viewers over 60 to ABC, saying, "That's not a demographic we want."

In fact, in the just-completed November sweeps period, CBS was down slightly more in the prime 25-to-54 age group than in total viewers, the category that includes all those over-60s. CBS Evening News declined 13 percent in the latter versus 15 percent in the former.

Banner is quick to put to rest any notion that CBS, by bleeding older viewers, has increased the desirability of its audience. "When you talk about the demographic that the advertisers care about, it's a competitive race between us and NBC," he says. "At the moment, we are far ahead for year-to-date, and CBS isn't really showing up."

As it happens, NBC Nightly News narrowly edged out World News Tonight in both total audience and 25-54s in November, but a couple of fluky factors played a part in the victory. One was NBC's ratings bonanza on the day after Thanksgiving, when neither ABC nor CBS aired a 6:30 p.m. newscast.

The other was Brian Williams's performance as host of Saturday Night Live, which buoyed ratings for a few days -- at least in the view of his executive producer, Alexandra Wallace.

Would Banner consider asking Gibson to host SNL for a ratings bump? "I think Charlie knows what his job is every day, and I think we'll shy away form the stunts and concentrate on our day job," he says.