POLL: If Katie Couric leaves CBS Evening News, who should be the new anchor?

By Chris Ariens 

Katie Couric is on vacation this week — perhaps her last as the anchor of the CBS Evening News. She won’t be interviewing the president tomorrow, like her cross-network colleagues Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams will be. (CBS’ Erica Hill, who is filling in on Evening News, will conduct the interview.)

Two months from now — if you believe all the reports of the last few days — she’ll be out of the anchor chair and on to her new TV life, most likely daytime syndication. Over the past few days — starting with the Los Angeles Times and continuing through today with a new report in the New York Post — the Couric guessing game has reached a fevered pitch. Perhaps even more than when she left NBC for CBS five years ago.

Los Angeles Times: Almost from the day she started, there has been speculation that Couric was not as comfortable working the evening shift as she was in her previous job as co-anchor of NBC’s hugely successful morning show, “Today.”

Wall Street Journal
: An anchor change would offer an opportunity to make other changes at the newscast, as CBS News’s new chairman, Jeff Fager, and new president, David Rhodes, think about how to juice lagging ratings…

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New York Post: An offer to become a regular correspondent for the prestigious Sunday night TV magazine [60 Minutes] is part of the package being offered Couric — if she’ll stay and do a projected daytime talk show for CBS…

DailyBeast: One strong contender if Couric vacates the anchor chair in early June, as now seems almost certain, is veteran newsman Scott Pelley.

So what do you think? Who should take the Evening News chair if Couric steps down?


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