from USAToday.com
Who's excited to watch the news tonight? YOU ARE! It's September 5th, which means that KATIE COURIC is about to take over the venerable anchor chair at CBS News...and she's a LADY! With LEGS! And a big ol' SMILE! What will she wear? Will she be funny? Will we thrill to her soaring new theme music? What will her sparkling new set look like? Will she shake up the ages-old paradigm? Wil people watch her? Will people trust her?
These are the questions buzzing today, in every morning paper and blog (but not morning show!). There's been enough ink spilled so far to stain an army of wretches (not to mention the zillion-and-one entries at TVNewser's "Couric Watch," currently counting down the hours until the broadcast), so we'll make our point succinctly: Whatever the outcome, Katie Couric has already been a huge success. To paraphrase Brian Williams, her rising tide has lifted the boat of the evening news and given it a chance to reclaim its relevance and reshape to meet the needs of its audience, across all platforms (and across all three networks). It has tipped off a domino effect in the news world, reshuffling people from GMA, Today, The View, and even breathing life into Mark Cuban's new HDTV courtesy of Dan Rather (and, incidentally, giving even Mary Mapes another chance). It set off a storm of controversy about whether a woman could - gasp! - helm an evening newscast — prompting all sorts of discussion about how ridiculous it was that there was a controversy about whether a woman could helm an evening newscast. Short answer is, she can, and she will. Will it change how news is delivered, CBS's standing in the ratings, whether or not Charlie Gibson shaves his legs and criss-crosses them in fetching stilettos? Who knows, though we'd love to see that last one, just for kicks. The point is, in a few months the furor will die down and Katie will be just another news anchor. And therein will lie her greatest success of all.
