One of the reasons, says Rash, is that anchorman Dan Rather is "the public personification of the problem" at CBS News.

For the last week of 2004, an average of 8.4 million households tuned in to watch NBC's "Nightly News," anchored by Brokaw's replacement Brian Williams, according to Nielsen Media Research.

ABC's "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" drew 7.7 million households.

CBS's longtime cellar-dwelling broadcast came in at just 6 million households.

Rather's ratings slide has already cost CBS some big bucks, with the network having to compensate advertisers with more commercial time to make up for lost audience numbers that are guaranteed in contracts.

Ad revenue from the "Evening News" accounts for about 10 percent of the total revenue of the CBS News division, network chief Les Moonves told the Post.

Editor's note: