ShareThisBy ROB OWEN
If you're tired of the hoopla surrounding Katie Couric's ascension to the anchor desk at the "CBS Evening News," imagine how she feels.
"I'm really excited to get started, to stop talking about this and actually to start doing the job," Couric said in July.
These days, media self-obsession knows no bounds as outlets feverishly report even the tiniest details of the Couric-led broadcast, from the composer of the theme music (James "Titanic" Horner) to Couric's first big "get" (an interview with President Bush, to air in part Tuesday (Sept. 5), aided, as always, by a continuing barrage of press releases from CBS touting the newscast in an attempt to reap ratings benefits from its $15 million annual investment in Couric.
So what else new can viewers expect to see on the revamped "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" Tuesday? There will be a new set that Couric says will allow for greater flexibility, including space for on-set interviews, and a new graphics package.
Bob Schieffer, popular interim anchor after the departure of Dan Rather, will offer commentary segments every Wednesday and others will appear in a regular opinion segment called "Free Speech."
"Sometimes it might be someone people have never heard of expressing their opinions about a certain topic," said "CBS Evening News" executive producer Rome Hartman in an August teleconference with reporters. "They might come from the hinterlands of the country one night and another night it might be somebody who is a household name."
Hartman said it would not be the man-on-the-street opinion segments so often seen on local newscasts. He said "Free Speech" will be less like a letter to the editor and more akin to something you'd read on a newspaper's op-ed page.
Couric embarked on a "listening tour" this summer to get an idea of what viewers want out of an evening newscast. She said her findings include:
_ Viewers want more perspective and greater context. "Sometimes that's in how you tell the story, not the length of the story," she said. "And sometimes it is in the length of the story."
_ People want to know how the news of the day is relevant to their lives.
_ Viewers want less depressing news. "Obviously we can't sugarcoat what's going on in the world, but there are cases where I believe we can be a little more solution-oriented."
_ And they long for more civil discourse. "They want more thinking and less spewing, as one man said."
But will viewers want to watch Couric? Every pundit imaginable has weighed in on how she'll make the transition from the looser format of "Today" to the stricter, more serious evening news. That rankles Couric.
"It's almost as if, if you do the fun stuff, well, then you can't be serious," she said. "Because I don't think people feel if you do the serious stuff well then you can't necessarily be fun."
All eyes will be on the ratings to see if Couric can help pull CBS's long-time third-place newscast out of the Nielsen basement ("We prefer to call it the 'ratings rec room,'" Couric quipped).
CBS executives are preaching patience with regard to ratings growth once Couric takes over.
"Our No. 1 goal going into the season in September is attracting a larger share of the 25 million people who are already watching one of the three evening newscasts," said CBS News president Sean McManus in July. "Obviously, we want to try to expand that audience, but to put on a program that would be so jarring and so different to the audience that's used to watching our program, I think would be a mistake."
But there will be new bells and whistles, especially when it comes to online content. The entire newscast will be simulcast on the Internet at CBSNews.com. Viewers will be asked to register so they watch it when it airs in their local market.
Other Web content will include "Couric & Company," a blog with links to free video; "Eye to Eye," extended interviews with newsmakers; "CBS News First Look," in which Couric will offer an on-camera rundown of what's being prepared for the evening news. Couric intends to write a blog of her own at least once a week.
"The show that premieres on Sept. 5 will look different than the show on Nov. 5 or Dec. 5," McManus said. "It's going to be an evolving show."
And you can bet the media obsessed will be watching every step of the way.
(Rob Owen can be reached at rowen(at)post-gazette.com)
