From Bill Wyman at The Atlantic on March 28 - You can be forgiven for reading with skepticism the reports that Katie Couric may soon leave the anchor desk at the CBS Evening News. Couric was originally said to have been leaving in April 2008, in a much-talked-about story in the Wall Street Journal. Her last weeks of work were supposedly to come soon after the inauguration of Barack Obama. That story was nearly three years ago, and Couric’s still there.
Couric, who began hosting the show in 2006, had been drawing dismal ratings when the WSJ story was published. After that, viewership of the CBS Evening News dropped, and then dropped some more. Indeed, Katie Couric brought the newscast to historic lows, losing fully half the audience she had when she started. At this point, CBS has been eating those ratings for years (and paying Couric a reported $15 million annually). Why stop now? There’s a strong argument to be made that Couric will be there forever. Read More