NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - CBS said Wednesday it will experiment
with its evening newscast in the coming months as the network decides
what direction to go in the post-Dan Rather era.
CBS News president Andrew Heyward said the moves would be built around
what already has been done with temporary anchor Bob Schieffer, who took
over at "CBS Evening News" on March 10. Schieffer has brought new life to
the single-anchor format, spending time talking to the correspondents
on-air and asking them questions instead of the standard stand-up reports
common to the format.
Heyward offered few details about the reworking of "Evening News," though
he said it probably would be built around several correspondents that
could include Schieffer, who also is host of "Face the Nation" and is the
network's chief Washington correspondent.
"We haven't worked that out yet," Heyward said.
Heyward said CBS News was looking beyond the anchor as the "voice of
God." But don't count on "Evening News" to follow the lead of "The Early
Show," which has four anchors, or the multiple anchors/multiple cities
model that was the trademark of ABC's "World News Tonight" in the late
1970s and early '80s.
That was an innovation in Roone Arledge's time, but it wouldn't work
today, Heyward said. He feels Schieffer's manner and style are a good
fit.
"We like what we've seen so far," Heyward said. He said the spring and
summer were a good time to make tweaks because of the higher amounts of
sampling seen during those times.
During a briefing with reporters Wednesday announcing CBS' primetime
schedule, CBS chief Leslie Moonves praised Schieffer's time at the helm
and said the CBS News veteran had added "a real stability" to the
network's perennial third-place evening news. Moonves said there was no
time schedule on changes to "Evening News," saying Schieffer is doing a
great job.
"It makes making a decision (about the evening news) really quickly not
as necessary," Moonves said. He, too, offered no in-depth clues to what
kind of changes CBS News had in mind.
"We're looking at all sorts of things. This is a tough nut to crack,"
Moonves said.
But whatever the future holds for "Evening News," it isn't likely to
include "Today" show host Katie Couric. Moonves confirmed that CBS "had a
discussion with Katie Couric" but that the NBC News star was locked up in
a contract and wasn't likely to jump to anchor "Evening News." He added,
"I think she'll be at the 'Today' show for a very, very long time."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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