Sep 21, 2009 04:34 AM
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When Katie Couric took over CBS Evening News, everyone thought she would fail. But she hasn't. In fact, she's being praised for her poise, grace and interview style. And now producers want to make her bigger, stronger and more popular.
The fact of the matter is that Couric remains third in the network news race, and her producers are well aware of her ratings struggle. So now, though they insist she's safe, executives are encouraging Couric to evolve:
In a meeting last week, Ms. Couric and her producers made plans to nurture some existing franchises, including the financial investigation series "Follow the Money." Ms. Couric also wants to add more upbeat stories to the newscast, "since the news can be so depressing now."
More significantly, Ms. Couric continues to seek to diversify her role beyond the evening broadcast. "I've tried to utilize all the existing platforms at CBS, and when they don't exist, create them myself," she said.
Apart from CBS, she will conduct monthly interviews with notable women for Glamour magazine, beginning in the December issue.
Those interviews are no doubt influenced by the fact that another woman, Diane Sawyer, will soon venture into the nightly news arena, and provide hints of what could be a journalistic cat fight.
If Couric's Glamour scheme can get the women, Sawyer better start thinking of ways to get the gays, the only force that can counter the female force.
In addition to the above changes, Couric will start a new web-based interview series. Her first guest will be Glenn Beck. If that's not a gimmick, we don't know what is...
Send an email to Andrew Belonsky, the author of this post, at andrew.belonsky@gmail.com.
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