TV: CBS Replaces Katie Couric With Scott Pelley!

CBS made it official yesterday, announcing that 60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley would replace Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News effective June 6, a widely expected move that represents a major shift for the network. “Scott has it all,” gushed CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager. “We like to think of CBS News as the ‘reporter’s network’ and I can’t think of anybody in this business better suited for the anchor chair than Scott.” Here’s how people are reacting to the news:


•“The announcement is pretty much the opposite of everything Couric's was: it's not groundbreaking, risky or surprising,” writes James Poniewozik of Time. Pelley is competent, well known, “and falls into a reliable category for CBS, the white guy with a drawl.”

•“The best thing that CBS can say about Pelley is that he is no Couric,” says Jon Friedman of MarketWatch. “Pelley will be better at telling the news than making it,” and will “remind the typical evening-news viewers of the old-fashioned news anchor they grew up watching.”

•Hal Boedecker of the Orlando Sentinel noticed something else: CBS’s announcement doesn’t mention Couric once. “Hmmm. ‘Reporter’s network’ sounds like a slap at Couric. … Isn’t it fun reading between the lines in news releases?”