Poised Couric debuts

CBS promised us the "Evening News" would be different when Katie Couric took over, and it delivered.

Of course, the biggest difference was Couric herself. More than half a century after CBS launched a national newscast, she became the first woman at any network to be the solo anchor of the flagship broadcast.

But this was hardly the "very historical" event that Mark Koelbel, the anchorman at (CBS-owned) KUTV-Ch. 2, gushed to viewers about minutes before Couric debuted. The days of Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley are long gone, and the shadow that nightly network newscasts cast on the national landscape has shortened considerably.

Still, the biggest news on TV Tuesday was that America's morning sweetheart transitioned to being The Face of CBS News with ease. She was poised, polished and authoritative, while at the same time retaining the friendly charm that made her so successful for so long on NBC's "Today Show."

Couric was standing in front of her new anchor desk on her new set as the new music played and the new graphics rolled by at the top of the telecast. She quickly took her seat, however, and proceeded to introduce a variety of reports about the Taliban, President Bush, a big oil strike in the Gulf of Mexico and brief mentions of a new chairman for Ford and the death of the "Crocodile Hunter."

Three minutes — 13.6 percent of the total (22 minutes) non-commercial airtime — was devoted to a heartwarming feature story.

There were some obvious changes tailored to Couric. She sat down for a (taped) interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, looking just like she did on "Today." And she introduced a new segment CBS is calling "Free Speech," saying, "We want to encourage more civil discourse so we're giving people a forum to express themselves unfiltered and uninterrupted."

Rush Limbaugh is scheduled on Thursday, but first up was filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me"), who spoke, appropriately enough, about the need for more civil discourse in the media. "Without that, it's just show biz," he said.

Couric's newscast wasn't without showbiz elements. It was either very brave or very stupid to unveil the "exclusive first photos" of Tom Cruise's baby on Couric's first night, opening her up to charges of being a lightweight.