Katie Couric, CBS Evening News
When Katie Couric first took over the CBS Evening News, she said she didn't want to do your grandmother's newscast. But she's found out the hard way that Grandma liked her evening news the way it was. The program's ratings have fallen to a 20-year low, languishing behind ABC's World News with Charles Gibson and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. CBS News recently installed veteran producer Rick Kaplan, who has upped the number of stories covered and dropped the informal touches that Couric brought to it.
"A lot of things didn't work," says Kaplan. "It didn't suit what the viewers were looking for, and we got off it and tried something else. We gave everyone a lesson in some things not to do."
The anchor agrees it's the way to go for now.
"Rick is trying to reassure people that we are here every night coverin
read more
Newly appointed CBS News senior vice president Paul Friedman has been put in charge of, among other things, bolstering Katie Couric's struggling Evening News-cast. Speaking to the latest, far-from-greatest ratings, Friedman tells the Hollywood Reporter, "Obviously it's not the best news.... But we know we're on the right track now," having recently amped up the program's hard-news content. "Our frustration is that the program is so much better [than when Couric first seized the reins], and we just need people to notice that. We alienated, clearly, a significant part of our audience, [and] we've got to get them to check in again."
read more
And the hits just keep comin'. According to the Associated Press, the beleaguered CBS Evening News anchor's online video essay about getting her first library card was A) not her own and B) not even the work of one of her staff, it was plagiarized. The Wall Street Journal first published the article, which Couric delivered in first-person, in a March column by Jeffrey Zaslow. Natch, the red-faced producer who "wrote" the piece was pink-slipped, and the Kate-ster has maintained that she didn't know it wasn't an original. (Although, presumably, she did know she hadn't written it.)
read more
A new memoir from former CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg takes big shots at network big shots Les Moonves and Katie Couric. According to the New York Post, his book Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right mauls CEO Moonves for dubbing Couric "the Jackie Robinson of network news" when she became the first solo woman anchor of an evening newscast. After detailing Robinson's battles with bigotry, Goldberg's book lists the "indignities" Couric must contend with, such as "that pesky $15 million salary," "nasty limousines that whisk her about town," road-trip stays at "the most luxurious suites at only the finest hotels," and "those dreadful Park Avenue A-list parties." Reps for neither CBS nor Couric had comment.
read more
Samantha Harris is expecting her and husband Michael's first child, the Dancing with the Stars cohost announced on Tuesday's telecast.... Katie Couric has been dating Brooks L. Perlin, a triathlete 17 years her junior, says the New York Daily News.... Also per the News, Jennifer Lopez's rep calls an OK! piece claiming that the singer's marriage to Marc Anthony is over "a disgusting story full of lies. We're consulting lawyers".... Danny Bonaduce's wife of 16 years, Gretchen, filed for divorce on Tuesday and is seeking full custody of their daughter, 12, and son, 6, says People.
read more
CBS News is expected to announce on Thursday that Rome Hartman is being ousted as CBS Evening News' executive producer, with former CNN and MSNBC prez Rick Kaplan to take his place. "Changes had to be made," a source tells the New York Post, alluding to Katie Couric's February-sweeps ratings, which again found her a distant third and, worse, delivering a six-percent smaller audience than Bob Schieffer drew a year ago. Adds the Post's insider, "This was a competitive move, an aggressive move by [CBS News president] Sean [McManus]." And if this doesn't work? We CGI in a third, fabulous gam for K.C.
read more
Broadcasting Cable asked Brian Williams about last weeks 30 Rock episodeIt was a heart-stopper to see that [graffiti] on the wall he said I hope my old friend Katie [Couric] knows thats not really what I do with my free time Williams called the send-up brilliant and hilarious and noted for the record that hes a teetotaler in real life
read more
The "Free Speech" segments on Katie Couric's CBS Evening News are being cut back to just a couple of times a week — maybe even less sometimes, exec producer Rome Hartman tells the Washington Post. And in the future, the people whose opinions are being expressed will be less-famous ones, the kind that don't already have a platform for mouthing off. Holy smoke, this is my big chance to speak out on... aw, crud, I need an issue.
read more
CBS Evening News again placed third and averaged one well-coiffed hair over seven million viewers last week, representing Katie Couric's fourth straight week of declining ratings after premiering to an audience of 13.6 mil. Still, CBS notes that its Evening News is the only of the three network newscasts to have more viewers than the same week a year ago. "Where we were last week or even in the weeks to come is not as important as where we are next year, and even the year after that," spins CBS News president Sean McManus. "We are focused on the long term."
read more
A source at NBC tells the New York Post's Page Six that Ed Klein, who is at work on an unauthorized bio of Katie Couric, has found plenty of Peacockers to talk (albeit off the record) about the perky morning-gal-turned-evening-news-anchor — "And it isn't nice," says the snitch. "They are drudging up stuff that will be a nightmare for her. She wasn’t very nice for a long time when she was here." Case in point: My own horribly placed insider tells me Katie would never share her Mystic Tan.
read more
