Relationship between CBS and Couric ending with a whimper, not a bang
Katie Couric was chided by David Letterman this week for thinking of leaving her job as anchor of the CBS Evening News.
"It's not like it's a temp gig," Letterman told Couric, reminding her that other anchors "ride into the sunset."
For Couric, the sun apparently sets around 2 p.m. Don't blame her, though. That anchor seat has lost a lot of value since it was occupied by Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. In fact, a case could be made that Couric traded down when she left NBC's "Today" for CBS.
Now she wants to try daytime. What's interesting is that CBS does not appear to be making a big push to keep her in the anchor chair. CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, who was instrumental in wooing Couric away from NBC to CBS, is sitting back and letting the new leadership at CBS News -- Chairman Jeff Fager and President David Rhodes, call the shots, according to people familiar with the situation.
Moonves may not want to be seen publicly pursuing someone who clearly has their mind made up. Perhaps singing "Happy Birthday" to Couric for a video the network made for her in January was as far as he was willing to go.
That Couric is consulting with her former "Today" producer (and ex-NBC Universal CEO) Jeff Zucker probably hasn't helped her relationship with her current bosses at CBS. It will be interesting to see if CBS seriously considers going after a Couric talk show or passes.
Inside CBS, attention is starting to focus on Scott Pelley as the leading candidate for Couric's job should she bolt, which seems to be a foregone conclusion.
Pelley, a "60 Minutes" correspondent, is close to Fager, who besides being chairman of CBS News continues to executive produce the newsmagazine.
Pelley has been with CBS for more than 21 years. If he is given the job, odds are the network won't have to worry about him eyeing his next big deal or wondering what else is on the horizon.
If Couric does leave, her stint at CBS will be one of the shortest for an evening news anchor. Cronkite did it for almost 20 years and Rather for more than two decades. ABC's Peter Jennings and NBC's Tom Brokaw also put in over 20 years anchoring. While ABC weathered some instability with the anchor slot after Jennings died, Diane Sawyer seems willing to take Letterman's advice and ride into the sunset. NBC's Brian Williams also seems entirely comfortable in his job.
There will be lots of analysis about Couric's run at CBS News. She did not boost ratings the way CBS would have liked. Her persona, perfect for the morning, ultimately did not work as well in the evenings. The media seemed more obsessed than viewers about her role as CBS News anchor. In daytime, she will be back in her comfort zone.
-- Joe Flint
MORE FROM COMPANY TOWN:
Starz to delay new series on Netflix streaming, movies may follow
Movie Projector: Will 'Wimpy Kid' put 'Sucker Punch' on the ropes?
Imax strikes 75-theater joint venture in China
Photos: Top right: Katie Couric. Credit: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images. Bottom left: Scott Pelley. Credit: John Filo/CBS.
How can Katie Couric be such an outstanding journalist that she won a peer award by interviewing Sarah Palin, and now this? Either she's an outstanding journalist, or she's a dud. Maybe she won that award for her interview for other reasons than being a good journalist? Hmmmm!
Posted by: JustAGuy | March 25, 2011 at 02:23 PM
I hope CBS finds someone without a screaming lefwing bias this time around. It would be a first.
Posted by: Susan | March 25, 2011 at 02:23 PM
Until they start reporting truth instead of their liberal fiction, I will never watch any of them anyway! Couric was awful!
Posted by: Never Watch | March 25, 2011 at 02:28 PM
since she displayed she is a blazing liberal with bias reporting, lots of people have turned away from her. network news is a dinosaur.
Posted by: dot | March 25, 2011 at 02:28 PM
NO ONE from The Today Show ever made it anywhere else! HOwever, she got the $$$$, so she does not care that she was a failure! but, good ridence. The viewers have learned how fake and bias these progressive talking heads really have become! Good, put them all out of business.
Posted by: edwardo | March 25, 2011 at 02:29 PM
Hire Sarah Palin!!! First telecast show complete unedited interview from '08 to expose the fraud that is Couric! That would eclipse the fraudulent memo story that brought down Rather.
Posted by: Dude | March 25, 2011 at 02:32 PM
It's pathetic how these suits don't get it. Go on cbsnews.com and all you see, no matter which story, is a picture of Kouric standing there, arms folded, looking back at you. She's the news mascot, and we're supposed to be impressed. America has done some growing up since the halcyon Cronkite days, and even Rather's bias was an open sick joke. It's no wonder Fox is eating their lunch.
Posted by: Paul B. | March 25, 2011 at 02:39 PM
Katie Couric exposed Sarah Palin for the fraud that she is, for that this nation should be forever grateful! - booch221
------------------------------------------------------
Fraud? Good think your life doesn't depending on proving that statement with a few facts!
Posted by: JustAGuy | March 25, 2011 at 02:39 PM
CBS with Her Perkiness is NO Longer NEWS...it's just more Liberal drivel, insulting, obnoxious, biased, and sometimes downright HATEFUL....as her trashing of Palin. I won't watch it anymore, just like I don't read the NYT, or watch NBC, Abc, Cnn, Pbs...If I want news, I will decide what the news MEANS, don't need KaKaKatie "s'plaining" to me, or mostly giving me HER Liberal OPINIONs.
Posted by: seenbetterdaze | March 25, 2011 at 02:40 PM
@ booch221
"Katie Couric exposed Sarah Palin for the fraud that she is, for that this nation should be forever grateful!"
Too bad she wasnt as eager to expose Obummer for the fraud that he is also.
Posted by: PB | March 25, 2011 at 02:40 PM
"The media seemed more obsessed than viewers about her role as CBS News anchor."
Absolutely correct. She is one among a pantheon of shockingly overpaid and over-rated personalities. She has been made a success by an extremely liberal and myopic industry which refuses to admit that people like her are failures because of their transparent bias. They blindly pass pass $15 million a year which feeds Katies delusion that she is successful.
Did not increase ratings "as they had hoped?" She lost 3 Million viewers! How about, "consistently lost viewers year after year."
Embarrassing.
Posted by: JimCT | March 25, 2011 at 02:43 PM
CBS just needs to find another person that can read a teleprompter....sounds like a gig for Obama! just don't give him a credit card!
Posted by: Katie | March 25, 2011 at 02:44 PM
booch221: If couric were a journalist it would expose obama for being the fraud it is.
Posted by: boochIsDumb | March 25, 2011 at 02:45 PM
There was:
Cronkite
Rather
Couric
Boy thats progress, no wonder liberal media is failing.
Posted by: edwardo | March 25, 2011 at 02:46 PM
ONE thing, we did get to look up her Axx.
Posted by: edwardo | March 25, 2011 at 02:47 PM
Scott Pelley? Why not just bring back Dan Rather and have him
team with Morley Safer? (shuddering)
Erin Burnett of CNBC - the perfect choice.
Posted by: vicfromvolta | March 25, 2011 at 02:49 PM
THANK GOD SHES LEAVING! I'D STILL DO HER THOUGH.
Posted by: Delta | March 25, 2011 at 02:51 PM
Let's see...I spent 36 years as an anchor at a CBS affiliate in San Antonio, so I will respond to some of these comments.
1. Walter Cronkite was as big a liberal as the rest, maybe bigger, but the public didn't know about media bias in the 60s and 70s.
2. Dan Rather was a chameleon who would be whatever the execs wanted him to be; he knew they were liberals and rode it as long as he could...but in Texas he'd try to convince you he was a good old boy. He wasn't.
3. Katie is not a reporter; reporters actually can go out and get stories.
4. Networks hire people who do good lunch; competence is irrelevant.
5. Almost anybody has been put in front of a teleprompter and made an anchor, but that doesn't make them good anchors. Good anchors understand the subject and what makes the story important.
6. The day of TV news is not dead - but doing TV news the same way for 30 years has killed most newscasts.
7. What people in the business have forgotten is that TV news was the first reality programming; it can be a lot more than a list of stories.
Posted by: cmarrou | March 25, 2011 at 02:51 PM
So....Veronica Corningstone was NOT a viable replacement for Ron Burgundy.
Champ Kind: "It is anchor*man*, not anchor*lady*. And that is a scientific fact."
Posted by: Crazy_Redneck | March 25, 2011 at 02:51 PM
Who cares? Who watches this stuff. These people just read the news.
Posted by: Gary Lamph | March 25, 2011 at 02:53 PM
The era of bias slant news from Big Media is falling fast and Couric is Exhibit A. When it's hard to report the truth in news because of leftist agendas, viewers smell it out like the sack of soot that it is. Hence, their brick dropping ratings.
The Three Stooges of Big Media anchors have achieved career insignificance---Couric, Williams and whoever the flavor of the month is at ABC. Goodbye, get lost, get out.
Posted by: Blue State Disgust | March 25, 2011 at 02:56 PM
Maybe she can get a job with Keith Olbermann at Current TV.....LOL
Posted by: idesign | March 25, 2011 at 02:57 PM
What so great about her anyway????
Posted by: sanityisrare | March 25, 2011 at 02:57 PM
Scott Pelley might be a good choice.
However, Harry Smith would be a GREAT choice... If given the chance, midwesterner Harry Smith would soon remind people of how it was in the golden age of CBS when an honest face reported the news without an agenda
Posted by: Paul Warn | March 25, 2011 at 02:58 PM
So? (pause) And so?
Posted by: Margie | March 25, 2011 at 02:59 PM