For the New Face of CBS News, a Subdued Beginning

FOR NEW FACE OF CBS NEWS, A SUBDUED BEGINNING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alessandra Stanley]
Walter Cronkite introduced Katie Couric's debut as the first woman to serve as the official solo anchor of a major network evening news broadcast. Couric was subdued throughout the broadcast, perhaps a little spooked by all the fuss over her appointment. The network’s readiness campaign -- the focus groups, the listening tour of America, the wardrobe questions -- have prompted ample attention and some snickering. She is the first true celebrity to anchor a network news program. Tom Brokaw was well known when he went from “Today” to the “NBC Nightly News,” as is Charles Gibson, who recently left “Good Morning America” to be the evening-news anchor on ABC. Neither is nearly as high wattage. No other news figure, not even the glamorous Diane Sawyer, appears as often in People magazine or is stalked as relentlessly by gossip columnists and entertainment shows. And Ms. Couric revels in the show-business spotlight, whether as the focus of an episode of “E! True Hollywood Story” or making cameos on “Will and Grace” and in “Austin Powers in Goldmember.” CBS is not paying her an estimated $15 million a year for being a woman -- that is the cost of hiring the biggest star. And that star factor affects the “CBS Evening News” far more than a new format, new theme music or a redesigned set. The woman who stood out most last night was CBS’s chief foreign-affairs reporter, Lara Logan, an experienced and unusually pretty war correspondent who took a daring trip into Taliban-held territory in Afghanistan wrapped in a black chador.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/arts/television/06watch.html
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