The Mirror

855,000 Viewers Quit ‘Face The Nation’ After Schieffer Exit

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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Sunday morning political shows aren’t exactly riveting on a good day.

But to lose 855,000 viewers on the week after CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer retires and John Dickerson takes over in the first 10 minutes of the show is a really embarrassing flop.

TVNewser first reported the news.

New details: As “Face The Nation” lost thousands in those early minutes, ABC “This Week” gained 86,000 viewers. NBC’s “Meet the Press” was preempted by the French Open, so it’s tough to say at this point what would’ve happened had the show been an alternative option.

Schieffer’s final show didn’t fare much better. While NBC “Meet the Press” grew slightly within the first ten minutes, “Face the Nation” shedded nearly a million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. What’s more, CBS claimed “nearly 4 million viewers tuned in for Bob’s last Sunday” – but they lost nearly 2 million over the course of that half hour.

Was Dickerson in the grass with big mouth Gov. Chris Christie talking about weed not that interesting?

Whatever the case, “Face the Nation” viewers were tuning out in droves.

We’ll see what happens as Dickerson finds his sea legs in the weeks to come and CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper enters the mix.