Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw tells the Boston Herald he warned Katie Couric about moving from morning to evening news."I told her when she left that it's a dive off the high board," Brokaw said. "This is harder than it looks, to go from the morning to the evening."He feels CBS shares some of the blame for CBS Evening News' declining ratings since Couric took over the anchor chair. "I think that they made a number of mistakes in terms of how they marketed her and what their approach to the news was."Couric's low ratings have fueled speculation that CBS may replace her after the 2009 presidential inauguration. — J.R. WhalenRelated:• Buzz Builds That Couric Is Eyeing Exit from CBS• The Biz: If Couric Exits CBS, Who Could Fill the Anchor Chair?
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A Gallup survey released on Thursday confirms one secret to Katie Couric's lack of success. Whereas rival evening news anchors Charles Gibson and Brian Williams are viewed positively by 62 percent and 59 percent of viewers, respectively, Katie only merits a thumbs-up from barely half the sample. What's more, the face of CBS Evening News has a full 29 percent of respondents viewing her negatively, as in they simply "don't like her" — a likability that, the AP notes, arose during Legs' final years at The Today Show.
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Former Today coanchor Katie Couric will take over the desk at CBS Evening News on Sept. 5. The program will have a new set, new theme music ("Aaron Copeland-esque," says Couric) and some touches that will aim to distinguish it from NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and ABC World News with Charles Gibson (which are ahead in the ratings). The Biz recently talked to Couric about the challenges ahead.
TVGuide.com: Are you nervous at all?Katie Couric: Yeah, of course. It's a new job and a new challenge and something I haven't done before on a full-time basis. So I would say I'm slightly nervous, but also really excited and anxious to get started.
TVGuide.com: What's your biggest
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Jim Murphy has returned to the morning-TV wars. On July 19 he was named the new executive producer of ABC's Good Morning America, which has been entrenched in second place behind NBC's Today for over a decade. But Murphy knows it could be worse: In the 1990s he helmed CBS This Morning, which struggled to get attention because the network still disdained morning TV's breezy blend of newsmaker interviews, cooking segments and pop concerts. That's no longer the case. As Murphy told the Biz, morning shows are now the main profit engines of all news divisions and are getting more attention than ever. We talked to Murphy about the new gig he's taking on after a six-year stint at CBS Evening News.
TVGuide.com: You left morning TV in 1998. How has it changed since then?Jim Murphy: It's become more competitive, for all the obvious reasons. It's the on
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Since leaving the NBC Nightly News anchor chair in 2004, Tom Brokaw has been anything but "retired." As host of Global Warming: What You Need to Know (premiering Sunday at 9 pm/ET on Discovery Channel), the newsman posits some reasons for our planet's higher fever.
TV Guide: Why'd you get involved with the documentary?
Tom Brokaw: I've been watching [the issue] for some time, and like a lot of people I've been trying to figure out the difference between fact and fiction. The scientific consensus is now pretty overwhelming. There are still scientists out there who will be dismissive of it, but more and more are signing on. What's been so striking to me is that more
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