The coming bloodbath at CBS News

Katie Couric appeared on CNN's Larry King Live show last week, an ominous sign since Larry King has a habit of devoting a full hour to high-profile people who have recently died.

The signs are everywhere.

Nielsen Media Research reports that the ratings for the CBS Evening News have fallen every week since Ms. Couric's debut as anchor. In one recent week, the broadcast was 1.1 million viewers behind ABC's second-place World News Tonight.

CBS was doing as well or better with veteran newsman Bob Schieffer in the anchor chair, and that was before they spent a king's ransom on overhauling and promoting the program, not to mention the check they wrote to pull Ms. Couric away from NBC's Today show.

Last week, CBS News let it be known that Bob Schieffer will join Katie Couric on Tuesday for the network's election night coverage.

And when Larry King asked Katie Couric if the program was her "baby," she talked about the "incredible team of people" who put the show together every night. "No, I don't come in and say 'Hello, welcome to my broadcast, my baby,'" she said. "I basically say 'Hey, you guys, what are we working on? What are we thinking? I'd really love to do this. What do you think?' It's a really wonderfully collaborative effort."

In that statement, the new CBS News anchor displays the formidable skill that took her to the top and kept her there in the shark-tank business of television. It takes some skill to sound so modest and gracious and humble while throwing your producers and staff to the wolves and placing yourself a safe distance away from the blame.

Very impressive.

If there was any remaining doubt about how this story will end, Katie Couric put it to rest on the Larry King show last week. "Larry, I didn't take this job for ratings," she said, "I took this job for the challenge and for the ability to really work on editorial content, to do serious news stories, the opportunity to work on '60 Minutes,' which I think is the only true journalistically superior magazine show on television. I've always dreamed of working on that show."

Now we're going to see what Lesley Stahl is made of. Don't bet against her, either.



Copyright 2006

Editor's note: You might be interested in the earlier posts, "Saving Katie Couric" and "Bob Schieffer's elegant exit."

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