STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

halleybird · Hermes

Couric to anchor CBS Evening News

jah · Dooney & Bourke

I think she is a terrible choice! She really grates on my nerves. Her demeanor is not always appropriate for the interviews she is doing and she is just too "bubbly" in my opinion for serious, hard-hitting news.

Diane Sawyer, Campbell Brown, Ann Curry, Barbara Walters, Leslie Stahl...all of these women I could see in the anchor chair, but not Katie.

Lilykind · Hermes

I too have mixed feelings.

Katie Couric is one of the many reasons I don't watch Today (besides the whole early morning business ). It's the VOICE!

I love Barbara and Diane when they anchor 20/20 and all. I also have a girl-newscaster crush on Campbell Brown and think she screams 'serious news' and 'real journalist'. I think they would make much more sense that Katie. Heck, Connie Chung has got to be better that Katie...ugh ugh ugh!

atlgirl · Gucci

ITA. I personally can't stand Katie Couric - the voice, the "little girl" persona, all of it drives me crazy. And she does not make me think "serious news" at all. I'm really disappointed.

ejc423 · Coach

On SNL's Weekend Update a few months ago:

Time Magazine reported this week that Katie Couric has been approached by CBS to replace Dan Rather as anchor of the CBS Evening News. Apparently, CBS really likes her idea for a segment called Where In the World Is Osama bin Laden? Replacing Rather with Couric would be good for people who like the news, but wish it contained more awkward flirting.

And that pretty much sums up how I feel about it. . .

blubirde · Chanel

Katie Couric is NOT a journalist and has no business being in an anchor chair. Her more recent interviews on the Today show with some leading Democratic figures show how incredibly incompetent she is. She's the figurehead for incompetent reporting and MTV generation soundbites. Give me a break. Whatever. I won't be watching her, to say the very least.

jj · Kate Spade

ejc423 wrote:

On SNL's Weekend Update a few months ago: Time Magazine reported this week that Katie Couric has been approached by CBS to replace Dan Rather as anchor of the CBS Evening News. Apparently, CBS really likes her idea for a segment called Where In the World Is Osama bin Laden? Replacing Rather with Couric would be good for people who like the news, but wish it contained more awkward flirting.

That is the funniest damn thing!! Oh the awkward flirting is always painful but funny. I Campbell Brown and hope she gets picked as Katie's replacement. But she should have gotten the CBS gig.

ILoveChoo · Hermes

I don't think I can take her seriously enough for the evening news.

"oh, there's a riot- but look at those shoes!!"

blubirde · Chanel

Did y'all hear that Meredith Veiria (sp?) will be her replacement on the Today Show? I just read it on Yahoo news.

luckylily · Gucci

I completely agree. I am so excited to see a woman as the anchor for one of the big national news hours. However, I also don't consider her a serious journalist. I'm not convinced that she's really all that up to speed on current events that are important to report.

It'll be really interesting to see how it pans out. She could potentially pull it together and be a great anchor, or it could be a joke.

Overall, I think there are several other women who've pursued serious journalism throughout their careers, and they deserve the position more than Katie.

Hermes

Meredith Vieira, left, and other co-hosts of ABC's "The View" daytime talk show salute their co-host, Elisabeth ...

Meredith Vieira to Replace Katie Couric
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

document.write(getElapsed("20060406T153045Z"));
2 hours agoUPDATED 1 MINUTE AGO

NEW YORK - A day after Katie Couric announced she was leaving for CBS, NBC has chosen Meredith Vieira as Matt Lauer's new partner on the "Today" show. Vieira made the announcement on the syndicated program "The View," where she is currently a co-host.

NBC scheduled a news conference for Thursday afternoon to announce its new "Today" host, and a person close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that it was Vieira. The person insisted on anonymity because the announcement had not been made.

NBC chose Vieira over several internal candidates, including weekend "Today" anchor Campbell Brown, newswoman Natalie Morales and "Today" newsreader Ann Curry. Brown and Morales had subbed for Couric on "Today" while she was on vacation at the end of last month.

With her background as a former "60 Minutes" correspondent and co-host on "The View," Vieira has a background to match a morning show host's need to do serious news and also interview Hollywood celebrities and do cooking segments. Vieira has also won a Daytime Emmy award for her job as host of the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

She's expected to join Lauer on "Today" in September. It will be the first anchor change on morning television's top-rated program since 1997.

Couric announced Wednesday, her 15th anniversary on "Today," that she was leaving next month to join CBS. She'll become anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" in September.

If Couric is to make her dawn-to-dusk move a success, she'll need more people like Amy Lindgren.

"I really love her," said Lindgren, a 27-year-old mother of two from Denmark, Maine. "I watch ABC now, but I'd rather watch Katie than the person doing the evening news (at ABC) now. She's outgoing, she's energetic and she seems to relate to the people nicely."

Lindgren is among the 29 percent of people responding to an Associated Press-TV Guide poll this week who said they preferred Couric in the evening. Forty-nine percent of the people said they favored Couric in the morning.

Despite the public's initial wariness, the poll suggests Couric has a chance to catch on at night, or at least lift the CBS broadcast from third place behind NBC's "Nightly News" and ABC's "World News Tonight."

About half of the respondents said they'd be willing to give Couric a try in the evening. One is Dian Miller of Shepherdsville, Ky., who is a loyal CBS viewer.

"I like hearing Bob Schieffer," she said. "I liked Dan Rather, but I think a change is in order. I think it will be a lot better for other women coming up."

During a time of transition in television news, Couric at least has a chance of making an impression. Brian Williams, who with only a year in the job at NBC's "Nightly News" is the longest-tenured evening news anchor, was judged most popular in a list of nine TV news personalities that also included Schieffer and Elizabeth Vargas of "World News Tonight."

That's the good news for Williams. The bad news is he was named by only 6 percent of the respondents. More than two-thirds didn't list a favorite.

Paul Wendel, a 30-year-old accountant from Newtown, Pa., said he associates the evening news with a somber, older person.

"It doesn't mean she couldn't do a good job," he said, "but it isn't a person I would associate with the evening news."

Only veteran broadcaster Diane Sawyer of ABC's "Good Morning America" received higher marks than Couric, with more than seven in 10 viewing her favorably. Unfortunately for Couric, she also had 12 percent of the people who flat-out didn't like her, higher than for any of the news personalities tested.

"I don't like her phony perkiness," said Desiree Dillon, a writer from Benicia, Calif. "I find her to be rather patronizing. Some of her guests she just talks down to, and she wears her opinions on her sleeve."

The AP-TV Guide poll of 615 adults was conducted by Ipsos on Monday and Tuesday. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Six in 10 women said they would watch Couric in the evenings, compared with 38 percent of men.

"She kind of bugs me," said Ethelene Fortner of Tulsa, Okla. "I watched Bob Schieffer. He wasn't cocky and a know-it-all like most of them are."

Couric turned down an offer of about $20 million a year to stay at NBC in order to take CBS' five-year deal at near her current salary of about $15 million, according to people close to negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because networks do not speak publicly about salaries. She's also agreed to do "60 Minutes" stories and prime-time specials for CBS.

blink · Coach

I TOTALLY disagree with you all. I watch Today and yes, it is a sugar-sprinkled show, but that's not all it is. If you catch it in the first half hour, it does cover serious news in much the same way as the current evening 1/2 hour news does anyway, and Katie Couric IS a tough interviewer with politicians and otherwise, she's a lot better than GMA.

I really like and respect Couric, she is diplomatic in her opinions-although a little bit of a liberal like me, she is very intelligent as well as lots of fun on the Today show for the other features. We won't be seeing her funny side on the evening news, but I am excited to see her on the evening news, I think she will be great!

I already watch CBS evening news over the other two stations anyway, so I will be watching more intentionally now.

I don't think Meredith Veira is a good replacement for her on Today. I think it should go to Natalie Morales, Campbell Brown or Alexis Glick, who are all regular fill-ins for Katie and for Ann Curry.

-- Edited by lorelei at 13:13, 2006-04-06

laken1 · Hermes

I don't watch the Today show so I can't really comment on Katie's competence in any way. But Barbara Walters did point out this morning that she was on the Today show for 13 years before she was hired as a co-anchor of a news show & no doubt people didn't view her as a "serious" new person either. Just food for thought.

That said, that SNL blurb is priceless

asf · Kate Spade

lorelei you summed up my feelings perfectly! who knew there were so many katie-haters out there?

and i hate that meredith viera is taking over for her...now i'll have to stop watching today! i can't stand mv but i love the today show - especially matt. yummmmm

Elle · Hermes

I don't have a problem with Katie at all. But I am quite disappointed that Meredith Vieira is taking over for her. She hasn't ever guest-anchored on the Today show before, so it ticks me off that Campbell Brown didn't get the spot. Who knows though, I suppose it's possible that Campbell Brown didn't want a permanent position there - is she based in DC or NYC?

asf · Kate Spade

i just remembered - campbell is getting married (or got married) this week, so maybe she didn't want the job because she's going to be starting a family soon?

Drew · Gucci

I can't stand Matt and Katie, except I do enjoy watching them for some reason; maybe I like to be annoyed???

On the other hand, I have a huge girl crush on Diane Sawyer and would actually watch the news if she were anchoring. I will tune into Katie for her first night though just to see how she does it.

halleybird · Hermes

Drew wrote:

I can't stand Matt and Katie, except I do enjoy watching them for some reason; maybe I like to be annoyed??? On the other hand, I have a huge girl crush on Diane Sawyer and would actually watch the news if she were anchoring. I will tune into Katie for her first night though just to see how she does it.

I love Diane Sawyer. LOVE her. I was mad when she took the GMA job, because I like her to be Serious Diane, but I think she classes up the show a lot. I also have much love for Campbell Brown and Ann Curry, but they aren't celebrity ratings boosters.

I have spent the last day or so really trying to be happy for Katie's gig, because it's such an important step for female journalists, but I. just. can't. The woman was on the cast of Shark Tale, for Pete's sake.

valenciana · Dooney & Bourke

laken1 wrote:

But Barbara Walters did point out this morning that she was on the Today show for 13 years before she was hired as a co-anchor of a news show & no doubt people didn't view her as a "serious" new person either.

Wait...I'm supposed to see Babawawa as a "serious journalist?"

As for Katie...eh, I can take her or leave her. I don't watch TV news anyway, so I don't really care. I did read some article (which I now cannot find, ugh) where some CBS honcho said that as far as he was concerned, with this new gig, Katie wouldn't be able to show off some of her best talents, such as dancing, or dressing up in goofy costumes. Heh.

I think they are putting her in to intentionally make the nighttime news less serious. Just think, soon the news will be like American Idol...they'll give all but the most vital detail of the story and then tell you to find out more "after the break!" It's all a ratings game. Blah.