Entertainment

TIM PICKIN’S

THE death last summer of Tim Russert is taking a toll on the once invincible “Meet the Press.”

The show that Russert hosted for 17 years is steadily falling in the ratings.

Late last month, for the first time in two years, CBS’ “Face the Nation” beat “MTP” in total viewers – though CBS did have Barack Obama on that week.

Still, “Meet the Press” was hard-pressed to come in second that week, barely ahead of ABC’s “This Week.”

Viewers aren’t so much abandoning “Meet the Press” as seeing what else is on the Sunday-morning newsmakers menu, says network news analyst Andrew Tyndall.

“[It’s] not so much to switch loyalty definitively,” he believes, “but to experiment and to revisit rival programs they may have once seen – and since abandoned.”

It is hard for anyone in the highly competitive network news business to imagine that “MTP’s” unquestioned dominance over Sunday-morning TV may be coming to an end after 11 long years.

But the fact is that the show has been shedding viewers every week over the past month, just as the hotly contested presidential election heads into the home stretch and the economy plunges into crisis – when you’d expect viewer interest to be at an all-time-high.

The loss of the very popular Russert, who died suddenly of a heart attack last June, appears to be the only explanation for the sudden drop.

NBC has been struggling with the decision over Russert’s replacement for months.

Former anchorman Tom Brokaw has been hosting the show temporarily and says he’ll stay through Election Day next month.

There have been some reports that the network would then start using several rotating hosts – including David Gregory.

The loss of Russert has emboldened rivals at CBS and ABC, where the ratings have been steadily – if modestly – increasing.

“It is inevitable that there will be more ratings churn and sampling in the wake of such disruption” after Russert’s death, Tyndall says.

“‘Meet the Press’ is clearly the dominant leader on Sunday mornings,” NBC said in a statement. “You don’t win a baseball game by winning one inning.”