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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (16700)	1/17/2007 11:09:37 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

How CBS can salvage the Couric debacle Commentary: Move her back to where she belongs - mornings By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Jan 3, 2007 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Katie Couric's discouraging prospects are becoming clearer with each new disheartening television ratings update. I wonder if anyone at CBS has concluded that the time has come to move Couric back to where she belonged, all along: early-morning television. I suspect that CBS could find a place for Katie on the couch, yukking it up with Harry, Hannah and Julie. The classy Rene Syler, one of the four original co-anchors of "The Early Show" on CBS, recently exited the program, conveniently leaving an opening. A conspiracy theorist would suggest that it's merely a matter of time before Couric joined a morning show that has long trailed NBC and ABC in viewers and professional respect. Meanwhile, Meredith Vieira, who replaced Couric on NBC's "Today," has gotten largely favorable reviews for her work. "Today," a virtual cash machine for years, has continued to roll on, here in the A.C. period (After Couric). CBS could solve two problems by shifting Couric. It would ease its evening-news conundrum and, presumably, lift the ratings of that moribund morning-hour asset. Does this idea make sense? Sure. But will it happen? Probably not. Pride The resistance may boil down to pride. Couric has too much pride to accept a return to her television roots. And CBS won't easily admit that it a) made a mistake by installing Couric in that time slot b) bungled the ham-fisted marketing strategy for its new star or c) presented an inferior, puffy show at 6:30 p.m. to a news-oriented audience. Publicly, CBS can maintain that it still has confidence in Couric as an evening-news anchor. Privately, the network suits might fret that they have already invested too many millions of dollars in Couric. Further, they could argue that pulling the plug after four months (gosh, it sure seems longer than that, don't you think?) would make them look downright panicky. America loved the early-morning Katie. Whether she likes it or not, it's evident that viewers embraced her for the "P" word: perkiness. Fair or not, however, the nation isn't willing to accept her in the traditionally solemn evening-news time period. CBS hoped that Couric's fans would follow her both to CBS and the new show. While Couric attracted a big audience during the honeymoon period, that has long since ended. With the Internet speeding up the world, Couric's grace time wasn't destined to last very long, anyway. Barring something unforeseen, America isn't likely to warm up to her as the anchor of "The CBS Evening News." CBS has tinkered with the show. Couric has gotten the credit she deserved for deftly interviewing newsmakers and celebrities on camera. True, Couric is capable of securing a juicy "get" interview on camera -- but why would a publicity-hungry newsmaker rush to appear on the No. 3 evening news show? To CBS' disappointment, Couric's ratings have been stuck in mud. She trails rivals Brian Williams on NBC and Charles Gibson on ABC. CBS executives' sunny statements, about how the new show is going to get better and that it's still way too early to reach a conclusion, are becoming redundant, if not stale. Maybe it doesn't matter to the network, in the long run. Media pundits have speculated that the gigantic publicity blitz last year, building up Couric's Sept. 5 debut, enabled CBS to sell big blocks of advertising. Even so, the show's ratings failure remains a public embarrassment. Football coach Bill Parcells is fond of saying, you are what your record says you are. It doesn't matter to him if his team has suffered crippling injuries or if the referees made bad calls to hurt his prospects or if supporters swore that his squad had tremendous potential. He is unforgiving. You are what your record says you are. Couric's record says she is in third place. It's time for CBS to go to Plan B. MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: Would it be wise for CBS to move Couric to the breakfast hour and bring in a new evening-news anchor? marketwatch.com