Katie Couric --- CBS --- demographics.

The ballyhoo about perky Katie Couric has paid off --- for now.

We shall see.

She drew 13.6 million viewers on Tuesday night, still lower than the ratings of the Big Three networks in their glory days beofre the 500-Channel information super-highway was invented by Al Gore --- when was a mere Senator.

The NYTimes (a periodically correct PC broadsheet) repeats the notion that those aged 25-54 (how very precise) are regarded as the most desirable by advertisers.

Wrong. Wrong-headed.

Those people are putting kids through college, tending to their aging parents, working two jobs etc. etc.

The real pool of discretionary wealth, I think, is mostly to be found among many healthy Seniors.

They have leisure. They travel. They get more Social Security and state-provided medical care than before. Their pensions are paying off, and are guaranteed by the government.

Of course, I have a vested interest in this analysis. The PBS and public stations have audiences that are skewed on the upside. That's where my wonderful program Think Tank appears, thanks to a wonderful staff, and me.

Accepting such a notion draws in "made-possible-bys" and "underwriters" --- advertisers.

All that helps,

Ben