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CBS Evening News
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CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963.
Currently, CBS Evening News is anchored on weekdays by Katie Couric, on Saturdays by Jeff Glor, and on Sundays by Russ Mitchell.
began broadcasting news shows on Saturday nights, expanding to two nights a week in 1947.
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CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963.
Currently, CBS Evening News is anchored on weekdays by Katie Couric, on Saturdays by Jeff Glor, and on Sundays by Russ Mitchell.
Anchors
Douglas Edwards (1948–1962)
CBS began broadcasting news shows on Saturday nights, expanding to two nights a week in 1947. On May 3, 1948 Douglas Edwards began "The CBS-TV News," a regular 15-minute nightly newscast later named "Douglas Edwards with the News." It is broadcast weeknights at 7:30 PM and is the first regularly scheduled television news program. The week's news stories were recapped Sunday night with Newsweek in Review. The name was later shortened to Week in Review and the show was moved to Saturday.
In 1950, the name of the nightly news was changed to Douglas Edwards with the News. When in 1951 it became the first news program to be broadcast on both coasts, thanks to a new coaxial cable connection, Edwards started using the greeting "Good evening everyone, coast to coast."
The program competed against the Camel News Caravan on NBC, launched in 1949. Edwards attracted more viewers during the mid-1950s, but lost ground when Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were teamed up by NBC on the Huntley-Brinkley Report.
On November 30, 1956, the show became the first to use videotape; it was used to time delay broadcasts to the western U.S.
Walter Cronkite (1962–1981)
Walter Cronkite took over the anchor chair in 1962. On September 2, 1963, CBS Evening News became network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, lengthened from its original 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
NBC's team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley had the most-watched network news program at the time, but under Cronkite, the show began what would eventually become an eighteen-year period of dominating the nightly news ratings. In the process, Walter Cronkite became an American icon, judged "the most trusted man in America" in a Gallup Poll from that era, a status that had first been fostered by his coverage of the JFK Assassination.
The newscast switched from black and white to color on August 19, 1965, about the same time as many other CBS shows. With the retirement of NBC's Huntley in 1970, Cronkite moved into the ratings lead and held it through the decade. Cronkite's image was further bolstered by his enthusiastic support for the space program, culminating with his anchoring of CBS News' coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.
His 1968 editorial declaring that the United States could only hope for a stalemate in Vietnam is often credited with influencing Lyndon Johnson's decision to drop out of the Presidential race. "If I've lost Walter Cronkite," said Johnson, "I've lost Middle America."
In late 1972, Cronkite prodded the show's producers to feature two nights of lengthy explanation of the Watergate scandal, which had been heavily covered by The Washington Post but had not received heavy national coverage. After the first half of the report, shown on a Friday, ran for 14 minutes -- half of the air time of the broadcast -- White House officials complained to CBS founder William S. Paley. Monday's report was aired, but only for six minutes.
Walter Cronkite retired from the broadcast March 6, 1981, under a CBS policy requiring mandatory retirement at age 65. CBS correspondent Dan Rather replaced Cronkite the following Monday.
Dan Rather (1981–2005)
Dan Rather, a CBS news correspondent since the early 1960s and a 60 Minutes reporter, took over the program in 1981, but he was not as well received as an anchorman as Cronkite had been, and by 1990, the show was third, behind ABC and NBC.
Concerns about excessive liberalism in the media were frequently leveled at Rather and CBS in general. Some of these concerns dated from Rather's position as White House correspondent for CBS News during the Nixon Administration. An interview related to the Iran-contra affair with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush where the two engaged in a shouting match on live television did little to dispel those concerns. Rather apologized for his behavior in statements the following day.
On Monday, September 1, 1986, Rather attempted to initiate a slogan, as his predecessor had "And that's the way it is." Simply closing his broadcasts by saying "courage" after his closing remarks. On Wednesday, September 3 he said what he thought was the Spanish word for courage, pronouncing it "cur-AH-he." This was heavily criticized and mocked in the media, and Rather abandoned it on Monday, September 8.
On September 11, 1987, Dan Rather marched off the camera in anger when it appeared that CBS Sports' coverage of a US Open semifinal match was going to cut into time alloted for the Evening News. Rather was in Miami covering the papal visit to the city. When the tennis match ended at 6:32 p.m., Rather was nowhere to be found. Six minutes of dead air followed before he returned to the broadcast position. Surprisingly, nearly half of the audience watched and waited. He later suggested that his intention was to force the sports department to fill up the entire half-hour so that he wouldn't have to truncate their elaborately-planned coverage of a visit by Pope John Paul II.
Demonstrators from AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) broke into the CBS News studio on January 23, 1991 and chanted "Fight AIDS, not Arabs" during the show's introduction. One protester was seen on camera just as Dan Rather began speaking. Rather immediately called for a commercial break and later apologized to viewers about the incident.
Dan Rather & Connie Chung (1993–1995)
Connie Chung began co-anchoring the broadcast with Rather on June 1, 1993. She both co-anchored in the studio, but also with either herself or Dan on location, and the other in the studio. Although Rather never said so publicly, CBS News insiders said he did not approve of her appointment. Chung left in May 1995.
In 2005, Rather left the anchor position amidst controversy and a credibility crisis over false reports broadcast in the heat of the US Presidential election campaign. The false report was a September 2004 60 Minutes Wednesday segment questioning President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard record. The Pentagon challenged the authenticity of the Killian documents used for the report. A number of bloggers analyzed scans of the documents, and rapidly concluded the documents were forgeries. Subsequently, CBS commissioned an independent inquiry into the matter. Although Rather denied this incident was the reason for his departure from the broadcast, the damaged credibility of the news division was evident. After his departure from the anchor chair, Rather worked on other CBS News programming as a correspondent before being fired by the network in 2006.
Dan Rather retired from the Evening News on March 9, 2005, at 7:00 eastern time, exactly 24 years after succeeding Cronkite. On June 20, 2006, CBS News President Sean McManus announced that Rather and CBS had agreed to end his 44-year career with the network.
Bob Schieffer (2005–2006)
Rather was succeeded on an interim basis by longtime CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer. Schieffer has hosted the CBS News Sunday morning political program Face the Nation, based in Washington, D.C., since 1991.
At the time Schieffer took over, it was uncertain how long he would host the broadcast, or whether it would retain its current shape or instead adopt some kind of multiple-host or other alternative format.
Under Rather in the years leading up to his retirement, the show trailed its rivals at ABC and NBC by a fairly large margin. John Roberts, the White House correspondent and Scott Pelley, his predecessor in that position, were often mentioned as possible successors to Rather when he retired. Jim Axelrod took over as White House correspondent when Roberts later left for CNN.
In the months following Rather's departure, the program came to emphasize live exchanges between Schieffer and the various CBS News correspondents around the world. In contrast to traditional network-news practice, these exchanges are unrehearsed as part of an effort to make the language on the broadcast sound more "natural", according to Schieffer. Viewership levels increased over this period of time. It became the only news broadcast to gain viewers during 2005.
In November 2005, CBS announced that Evening News executive producer Jim Murphy would be replaced by Rome Hartman, who took the helm over in early January 2006.
Schieffer led the CBS Evening News to become the #2 evening news broadcast, beating out ABC World News Tonight. This came after a five-year period of being a distant third. The death of Peter Jennings in 2005 put the ABC News division in flux. Some speculate Jennings' death as a major factor in the ground that CBS has gained in the ratings war. But when Charles Gibson was appointed as anchor at World News Tonight, ABC regained much of its momentum to take back the #2 spot.
Bob Schieffer's final broadcast of the newscast occurred on Thursday, August 31, 2006. He was succeeded the following Tuesday by Katie Couric.
Katie Couric (2006–present)
On December 1, 2005, it was reported that Katie Couric, host of NBC's Today morning show, was considering CBS' offer to take over the CBS Evening News. On April 1, 2006, Couric officially signed the deal to become the anchor of the CBS Evening News.
On April 5, 2006, Couric officially told the Today audience she would step down as co-anchor, a spot she had held for fifteen years, longer than any other Today Show anchor. There had been a great deal of speculation on whether she would leave a multi-million dollar contract with Today. To lure Couric away from NBC, CBS offered her the anchor post and additionally, the opportunity to become a contributor to 60 Minutes. Couric is the first female to anchor a national network newscast solo and also serves as the program's managing editor.
Many have criticized the move by CBS to promote Couric to the broadcast chair, questioning Couric's ability to deliver hard journalism after 15 years of entertainment and fluff segments on Today. Critics claim she lacks the weight to be a sole anchor of the CBS Evening News. Also, Couric has little experience doing live field reports from news hotspots nor any experience leading a news team as evening anchors have traditionally done. Couric's supporters point to the fact that she was once a Washington deputy reporter on the Pentagon beat for NBC News, although this was over twenty years ago in the 1980s.
Couric began working at CBS News in July 2006. During her first broadcast as anchor on Tuesday, September 5, 2006, new graphics, a new set, and a new theme composed by Academy Award winning composer James Horner were introduced; similar graphics and music would be used in other CBS News productions such as Up to the Minute, CBS Morning News, and The Early Show throughout the month of October. A new opening title sequence was designed, with Walter Cronkite providing the voiceover. The program also debuted a new feature called "Free Speech" in which different Americans, ranging from a well known national figure to an average person, would provide a news commentary.
However, after overwhelmingly negative reaction, the "Free Speech" segment was discontinued.
The debut episode for Katie Couric nearly doubled the average audience the program had pulled in up until then, bringing in 13.6 million viewers. CBS Evening News with Katie Couric remained until September. By the week of September 18 it dropped to second. By mid-October 2006, the broadcast had slipped back into third place, at times trailing far behind the competitors.
On March 8, 2007, The New York Times reported that executive producer Rome Hartman was being replaced by television news veteran Rick Kaplan. Hartman's last production aired on March 7. Kaplan comes to the CBS Evening News after stints at MSNBC, CNN and ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.
Since Katie Couric assumed the helm of the CBS Evening News, several correspondents have left the network for one reason or another, notably John Roberts, Jim Acosta, Lee Cowan and Trish Regan. On April 22, 2007, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that CBS News is thinking about replacing Katie Couric after the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. However, CBS executives have denied these reports.
CBS, led by Les Moonves, has continued to offer their support of Couric through what the network has deemed a "transition period". Couric and the production teams behind the broadcast began to re-focus their efforts on "hard news", which was demonstrated in Couric's recent trips to the Middle East.
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric won the 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast.
On Monday, July 28, 2008, the CBS Evening News began broadcasting in high definition, becoming the second national newscast, behind NBC Nightly News to do so. In addition, 60 Minutes started broadcasting in High Definition in September, with the remainder of CBS News programming to follow by the end of 2009.
In September, Couric interviewed Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin which earned respect from a MarketWatch critic for asking tough questions. In December 24, 2008, MediaBistro wrote a piece about the Big Three network newscasts, praising Couric's CBS Evening News for extensive reporting that had, to its eyes, content better than its rivals.
In the week of December 29, CBS Evening News closed the gap with ABC World News with CBS rated 7,290,000 and ABC had 8,130,000
The CBS Evening News also had a strong week during the week of January 12, with its Total Viewer 7,445,000 surpassing the week of December 15, 2008 — its highest since February 26, 2007.
Weekend editions
CBS correspondent Russ Mitchell anchors the Sunday edition of the CBS Evening News. Mitchell, along with Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez, also currently substitutes for Couric on the weekday edition of the CBS Evening News. The Sunday edition airs a half hour earlier than the rest of the week's broadcasts at 6:00/5:00 ET/CT.
The Saturday editions of the CBS Evening News are anchored by Jeff Glor or
Kelly Wallace.
Substitutes for the weekend edition include Tracy Smith, Harry Smith, Charles Osgood, Maurice DuBois, Priya David, and Sharyn Alfonsi.
Former anchors of the weekend newscasts include Dan Rather (1970–1975), Roger Mudd (1975–1976), Morton Dean (1976–1979), Bob Schieffer (1979–1990), Paula Zahn (1990–1996), John Roberts (1996–1997), Deborah Norville (1997–2002), Giselle Fernández (2002–2005), and Mika Brzezinski (2005–2006).
Broadcasts outside the U.S.
CBS Evening News is shown on Sky News to viewers in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia at 12.30am & 5.30am GMT.
In Australia, the bulletin is shown at 11.30am Monday to Saturday, and at 12.30pm on Sundays on Sky News Australia.
CBS is not shown outside the Americas on a channel in its own right. However, CBS News is shown for a few hours a day on satellite channel Orbit News in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. CBS Evening News is broadcast live on ATV World in Hong Kong daily (except on certain weekends). In the Philippines it is shown on Velvet Tues. to Sat. 9.00am and 6.00pm (local time).
From 1st January 2009, ATV ceases to broadcast CBS Evening News and its sister programme, "60 Minutes Plus". The broadcast of another CBS programme "Late Show with David Letterman" has also been stopped since then.
Correspondents
External links
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