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Katie Couric's Ratings Slip as Week Wears On
Katie Couric may have been closely observed by media analysts as she debuted as network TV's first solo anchor last week, but how well-watched by the public was CBS's new star of its Evening News?
Pretty good, as it turns out, though her numbers dropped as the week wore on.
Some 13.6 million viewers watched Couric's first show, on Tuesday, Sept. 5. Wednesday's newscast drew 10.13 million; Thursday's, 9.48 million.
Even with that drop, reports MediaWeek magazine, Couric still beat NBC's usually top-rated Nightly News with Brian Williams, and ABC's typically second-ranked World News Tonight, with Charles Gibson.
NBC's slippage is partially blamed on the fact that some markets pre-empted the news show on Thursday night, Sept. 7, with the start of the National Football League season and a classic match-up between the Dolphins and the Steelers.
Saying that CBS executives find the news about Couric to be encouraging, the trade publication also says that Katie's addition to the newscast helped expand viewership by 84 percent compared to a year ago. And in the 25-54-year-old age range, the program improved 95 percent (3.9 million vs. 2 million).
Overall, last week brought CBS its biggest ratings for the show since the coverage of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan on Feb. 16, 1998.
This week's looming question: How will Couric's successor on the Today show, Meredith Vieira, fare with viewers? The veteran of The View starts Wednesday.
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KISS Singer, Wife Have a Boy
KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley and his wife, Erin Sutton, have welcomed a baby boy, the musician's rep has confirmed to PEOPLE.
Colin Michael Stanley was born in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Sept. 6, and weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz.
"Lucky for him, he looks just like his mother," Stanley tells PEOPLE.
This is the first child for Stanley, 54, and Sutton, 34, who wed last November. The rocker has another son, Evan Shane Stanley, from his previous marriage to Pamela Bowen.
Stanley, who co-founded KISS with Gene Simmons, is due to release his second solo album, Live To Win, on Oct. 24. His latest tour kicks off Oct. 21 in Atlanta and will wrap up in Los Angeles Nov. 14. Sutton is an attorney.
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Anna Nicole's Son Dies, Daughter Is Born
Daniel Smith, the 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith, died suddenly in the Bahamas on Sunday, three days after the former Playboy Playmate gave birth to a girl, according to a statement from Smith's attorney.
Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, tells PEOPLE Daniel was visiting his mother at Doctors Hospital when he was found in her room at about 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning.
"He was found in a condition of non-responsiveness," Ferguson says. "I am not certain who made the alarm, and doctors were called in but he was pronounced dead."
Ferguson says police officers were called to the scene, but there was no evidence of foul play: "There were no signs of violence to the body and there has been no sign of any unusual activities in the room that he was in."
An autopsy was being performed Monday afternoon and police were awaiting its results before determining a cause of death. Despite some newspaper reports, "We have no information about a heart attack at this time," Ferguson tells PEOPLE.
Daniel Smith, who often appeared on his mother's E! reality program The Anna Nicole Show, was in the Caribbean nation where his mother, 38, gave birth to a girl on Thursday, her lawyer, Howard K. Stern, said in a statement.
A statement posted on Smith's official Web site, annanicole.com, reads, "On Sept. 7 Anna Nicole gave birth to a healthy 6 lb., 9 oz. baby girl. Her son Daniel was in the Bahamas with her to share in the joy of his baby sister when he passed away suddenly on the morning of Sept. 10.
"We have yet to learn the cause of death but do not believe that drugs or alcohol were a factor. Anna Nicole is absolutely devastated by the loss of her son. He was her pride and joy and an amazing human being. Please do not make any press inquiries at this time so that Anna Nicole can grieve in peace."
Daniel's father, Smith's ex-husband Billy Smith, tells TV's Extra of the death of his son, "It's so sad. I hated that it happened. He was so young. I'm sort of in shock right now." According to Extra, Billy Smith had not seen his son since Daniel was two years old and last spoke to his ex-wife in 1996.
Smith, who earlier this year won a U.S. Supreme Court decision to claim her stake in the will of her late husband, billionaire J. Marshall Howard, has not publicly named the father of her second child.
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