NBC’s Couric May Say Today She’s CBS’ Newswoman
By Mike McDaniel, Houston Chronicle
Apr. 5–Katie Couric is expected to confirm on this morning’s telecast of NBC’s Today that she is leaving the show after 15 years to become the first woman to anchor a major network evening newscast solo in U.S. broadcasting history.
After months of speculation, Couric is expected to anchor CBS Evening News, probably starting in September.
Couric decided Tuesday to announce her decision so that it would coincide with plans by NBC to mark her 15th anniversary on Today, according to a report by The Washington Post. The Post cited unnamed sources at both networks and “people familiar with her thinking.”
Couric faces an immediate challenge: rescuing a newscast that recently seemed beyond rescue.
Locked into a decades-old format undermined by new technology, evening news airs when many people are not at home.
CBS’ situation was particularly dire. Its newscast trailed those on NBC and ABC even before being rocked by a credibility scandal in 2004 involving long-time anchor Dan Rather, when the network aired a flawed report about President Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service.
Paul Levinson, a professor at Fordham University, calls evening broadcasts a “dinosaur of diminished value in a world of 24-hour cable news.”
Couric, 49, has a reputation for juggling news and entertainment. On paper, she seems an unorthodox choice for news anchor, suggesting that CBS was determined to shake up its news delivery.
There will also be an avalanche of speculation as to how she will be received in her new position. But she sparked a turnaround once before. NBC suffered lagging ratings for Today when Deborah Norville replaced the popular Jane Pauley in 1989. Couric, who joined NBC as a reporter that year, took over for Norville in 1991 and quickly became a popular presence on morning television.
Meredith Viera, a co-anchor of ABC’s The View and host of the syndicated Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, is considered the front-runner to take Couric’s spot on Today.
There will be great pressure on Couric as an anchor, especially her ability to command an audience worthy of CBS’ investment, expected to be the range of $15 million to $20 million.
She brings to CBS uncommon experience in handling live interviews.
“She knows how to do live television,” says news analyst Andrew Tyndall.
But like Barbara Walters and Tom Brokaw, Couric comes to network news with a fluff tag attached. On Today, she would interview newsmakers, but minutes later she would rub elbows with a movie star, make linguini with a chef or comment on the latest hemlines. Her versatility was never questioned, but her ability to report hard news isn’t as certain.
She does arrive at CBS Evening News with some momentum. With Bob Schieffer serving as Rather’s interim replacement, Evening News has rebounded in the ratings while its competition has wilted. Comparing the last week of March 2006 to that of March 2005, NBC has lost a half-million viewers, ABC is down 1.1 million viewers and CBS has gained 700,000.
Couric will assume her position not long after the other networks underwent a similar transition. At NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams replaced Tom Brokaw in December 2004, while Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff became co-anchors of ABC World News Tonight in early January.
ABC will continue to be a network in transition. Woodruff is still recovering from wounds he received in Iraq in late January, and Vargas is slated for maternity leave in late summer.
Couric will further benefit from her presence on the premier news magazine 60 Minutes, which is expected to be part of the CBS package. She will join an honor roll that includes Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Ed Bradley and Steve Kroft, company that instantly lends weight to her status as a newswoman.
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