SHRIVER, SAWYER: A BAD ‘NEWS’ DAY

The final week for “CBS Morning News” anchors Maria Shriver and Forrest Sawyer tallied the broadcast’s worst ratings in nearly a year, figures from the A. C. Nielsen Co. showed Thursday.

NBC’s “Today” won the week of July 28-Aug. 1, its 32nd victory in the past 34 weeks, with a 4.9 rating. ABC’s “Good Morning America” averaged a 4.2, while “CBS Morning News” had a 2.7.

A single ratings point equals 859,000 homes with television.

The last time the “Morning News” rating had slipped as low as a 2.7 was last September.

Last month, CBS announced that the “Morning News” would leave the news division in January and be replaced by a more entertainment-oriented program, supervised by a newly created unit within the CBS Broadcast Group. Substitute anchors from CBS News will work the rest of the year. This week, it was Bruce Morton and Faith Daniels.

Sawyer and Shriver, who anchored the program since August, 1985, bid an emotional farewell to the audience last Friday. Their contracts are up shortly, but CBS News officials have expressed interest in finding them other assignments in the news division.