The LATimes’ Matea Gold catches up with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric in Washington, DC where she is anchoring the culmination of an election where she emerged with the most broadcast buzz. And despite the chatter last Spring, Couric is staying put. And least she thinks she is:
“As far as I know, unless you know something I don’t know. And you could! Listen, I think there’s a lot of pride at CBS at what we’ve been able to do and what we want to continue to do, and you can’t really put a price tag on that.”
Couric’s broadcast is also growing. While it’s still #3, it is up 7% in the last five weeks compared to the same period last year. “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams,” is up 2%, ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson,” is down 2%. But the momentum has executives excited. “We’re on a roll,” Couric’s EP Rick Kaplan says. “I don’t think there’s any limit to how far Katie can go in the evening news venue.”
And while she’ll be on the air 10 hours today, what about the constraints of a 22-minute broadcast?
Sometimes I’m jealous of the real estate on the cable networks. But when you have an insatiable monster, it does take time away from really great reporting and sometimes a great quality broadcast.