CBS held its upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall this afternoon, and chairman Jeff Fager took the stage to explain his vision for the division.
“We have a new energy and a new direction” Fager said. “[CBS CEO Les Moonves]would like the rest of CBS News to be more like “60 Minutes,” where we took a great old institution, and brought it up to date.”
Fager then introduced Scott Pelley, who promoted his debut on the “CBS Evening News” starting June 6. Pelley’s appearance was followed by a sizzle reel, which began with a voiceoever announcer saying:
“What if you could watch a program that had the integrity, reporting and insight of “60 Minutes” every weeknight? Well now you can.”
The CBS News sizzle reel seemed to feature almost every anchor and correspondent–even CNN anchor and occasional “60 Minutes” contributor Anderson Cooper made the cut–but there was one notable absence: Katie Couric.
Yes, Couric is leaving the evening newscast this week, but a number of attendees shared their disbelief on Twitter that CBS would not even mention her, if only to wish her well.