CBS Evening News
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{{Infobox Television | show_name = CBS Evening News | image = Image:CBSEveningNews.jpg | format = News | runtime = 30 minutes | creator = Don Hewitt | starring = Bob Schieffer | country = United States | network = CBS | num_episodes = N/A (airs daily) | first_aired = 1948 (as CBS Television News), 1951 (as Douglas Edwards with the News), September 2, 1963 (as CBS Evening News) | last_aired = present | imdb_id = | tv_com_id = }} The CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. It has broadcast since 1948.
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Douglas Edwards 1948-1962
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, Edwards started using the greeting "Good evening everyone, coast to coast." [1]
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 [2]. However, none of these early recordings is known to survive.
Walter Cronkite 1962-1981
Image:Cronkite.jpg 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 a longer 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.
Dan Rather 1981-2005
Image:DanRather-CBS2005.jpg 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.
Concerns about excessive liberalism in the media, which gained great favor during the Reagan years, were frequently leveled at Rather and CBS in general. Contributing to this was an infamous interview with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush in which the two engaged in a shouting match on live television related to the Iran-contra affair. Rather apologized for his behavior in statements the following day.
Connie Chung began co-anchoring the broadcast with Rather on June 1, 1993. It was speculated that Rather did not approve of her appointment. When Chung left in 1995, he did not seem displeased.
In 2005, Rather retired 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. Rather denied that this was the reason for his retirement.
Bob Schieffer 2005-2006
Image:BobSchieffer.jpg 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.
It was uncertain how long Schieffer 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 former White House correspondent for the network and Scott Pelley, his predecessor in that position, were often mentioned as possible successors to Rather when he retires. Jim Axelrod is the current White House correspondent.
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. Over this period of time, ratings improved, though the program still trailed the NBC and ABC evening news program. Notably, it has been the only news broadcast to gain viewers this year.
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.
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, Katie Couric officially signed the deal to become the anchor of the CBS Evening News [3].
On April 5, 2006, Katie officially told the viewership of Today that she is stepping down as co-anchor, a spot she has held for fifteen years, longer than any other morning news anchor. There was a lot of speculation on whether or not Couric would leave her multi-million dollar contract with Today, but CBS offered her the main position as anchor and they are letting her contribute to 60 Minutes. She will be the first female to anchor a national network newscast solo. Couric 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 that she lacks the weight to be a sole anchor of the CBS Evening News. Also, unlike other evening news anchors, Couric has little experience doing live field reports from news hotspots. Nor does she have any experience leading a news team as evening anchors have traditionally done. [4] This is all despite the fact that she was once a Washington deputy reporter on the Pentagon beat for NBC News in the 1980's. [5] [6]
See also
External links
- CBS Evening News Official Website
- IMDB entry
- Entry on Rather briefly describing the Chung episode
- CBS Press Release of Announcement of Couric's appointmentja:CBS Evening News