CBS Evening News

The CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. Overseas Sky News and Sky News Australia also broadcasts the program in the mornings, usually with a 7 or 8 hour time delay. CBS has broadcast this program since 1948.

The Douglas Edwards era

CBS began broadcasting full-length news shows on Saturday nights, expanding to two nights a week in 1947. On August 15, 1948, CBS launched its nightly 15-minute news show as CBS Television News at 7:30 p.m., anchored by Douglas Edwards; it was broadcast in five eastern cities. The show was later sponsored by Oldsmobile. In 1950 its name 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.

The Edwards broadcast was the first television program to use videotape, which was used to time delay broadcasts to the western U.S. on November 30, 1956 ^*. However, none of these early recordings is known to survive.

The Walter Cronkite era

Walter Cronkite gained the anchor chair in 1962 and 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. During most of the 1960s, the CBS Evening News lagged behind the Huntley-Brinkley Report in terms of viewership levels. The beginnings of corporate ossification at RCA, the parent company of NBC, set in and Cronkite helped guide the broadcast to ratings wins in the summers of 1968 and 1969. In 1970, upon Huntley's retirement, the CBS Evening News began a period of domination in terms of viewership unmatched in American television. In the process, Walter Cronkite became an American icon.

The Dan Rather era

Dan Rather, a CBS news correspondent since the early 1960s, took over the program in 1981. Rather had been co-host of the successful investigative news program 60 Minutes for some years. A transcript and video clip of the first broadcast is available at ratherbiased.com

At first, Rather was not well-accepted by Cronkite's audience. Viewership levels dropped. This came to CBS News management as a shock. Within months, the off-camera staff was reshuffled, and correspondents reassigned to suit Rather. Further corporate resources were devoted to the CBS Evening News, at the expense of other CBS News programs. The CBS Evening News regained viewership, but a tone had been set within the news division in favor of Rather's preferences and biases, which would last through the remainder of his tenure on the broadcast.

Concerns about excessive liberalism in the media, which gained great favor during the Reagan years, 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 September 11, 1987, Dan Rather stormed off the news set when it appeared a CBS Sports broadcast was going to cut into "his" airtime. When the tennis match ended at 6:32pm, Rather was nowhere to be found. Six minutes of dead air followed while he was rounded up from a nearby office. Surprisingly, nearly half of the audience watched and waited. Walter Cronkite later responded "I would have fired him. There's no excuse for it".

On January 23, 1991, demonstrators from AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) broke into CBS using forged ID's and were heard chanting "Fight AIDS, not Arabs" during the show's intro. One person was seen on camera just as Dan Rather began speaking. Rather immediately called for a commercial break. Video clip courtesy of TVParty.com

Connie Chung began co-anchoring the broadcast with Rather on June 1, 1993. Although Rather never said so publicly, CBS News insiders said he did not approve of her appointment, according to an article in "MediaWeek" from April 26, 1997. When Chung left in 1995, after using material in a report she had told a source would be off-the-record, Rather did not seem displeased. In 2005, Rather left the anchor position amidst controversy over a September 2004 60 Minutes Wednesday story questioning 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. Rather denied this incident was the reason for his departure from the broadcast. Since his departure from the anchor chair, Rather worked on other CBS News programming. On June 20, 2006, CBS News President Sean McManus announced Rather had come to an agreement with CBS News to end his 44-year career with the network.

The Bob Schieffer transition period

Rather retired from the Evening News on March 9, 2005, at 7:00 eastern time, exactly 24 years after succeeding Cronkite. He was succeeded on an interim basis by longtime CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer. Schieffer has hosted the CBS News public affairs program Face the Nation, based in Washington, DC, 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 has come 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 has been 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 of 2006.

Schieffer has recently led the CBS Evening News to become the #2 newscast beating out ABC World News Tonight. This comes 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's death as a major factor in the ground that CBS has gained in the ratings war. But since Charles Gibson was appointed as anchor at World News Tonight, ABC has regained much of its momentum and is also closing in on rival NBC Nightly News.

CBS correspondent Russ Mitchell has frequently substituted for Schieffer on the CBS Evening News. As of April 3, 2006, Mitchell also anchors the Sunday edition of the CBS Evening News, according to the CBS News website.

Upcoming anchor Katie Couric

On December 1 2005, it was reported that Katie Couric, host of NBC's Today morning show, was considering CBS's 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 will be the first female to anchor a national network newscast solo, and will also serve 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. This is all despite the fact that she was once a Washington deputy reporter on the Pentagon beat for NBC News in the 1980s. [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/television/2002915706_couric07.html ^*

Katie Couric will start work at CBS News in July 2006 after a June vacation. She will meet with CBS executives focusing on the direction of the evening newscast. There will be new graphics, a new set, and a new theme in time for her debut as anchor. Her first broadcast as anchor will be Tuesday, September 5, 2006. It is also worth noting that this is the same date that Tom Brokaw, also a former Today co-host, began his tenure as sole anchor of the NBC Nightly News in 1983.

External links

CBS network shows | News television series | 1940s TV shows in the United States 1950s TV shows in the United States 1960s TV shows in the United States 1970s TV shows in the United States 1980s TV shows in the United States 1990s TV shows in the United States 2000s TV shows in the United States | Early videotape recordings