Couric Starts with Whimper Rather than Bang

I just watched Katie Couric's debut as the anchor of the CBS Evening News and it was, much to my surprise, not very different than it was when Bob Shieffer was helming. I expected at least a couple radical stylistic changes that would set the CBS Evening News apart from it's competitors on NBC and ABC and shake things up a little. But there was nothing new. All in all, Couric's debut was, well, ordinary.

I've put together a 4:21 video summary of Couric's debut, available here, in case you missed it.

In terms of substance, Couric began the broadcast by wondering if it was "back to the drawing board" on the war on terror because things seem to be going poorly in Afghanistan. She spoke at length with Thomas Friedman about the words versus the actions of the Bush administration.

Towards the end of the broadcast, Couric introduced two new segments called "freeSpeech" and "Snap Shots!" which will be added nightly. The "freeSpeech" segment has potential but the "Snap Shots!" bit seems like it will probably get old fast. Tonight's was an exclusive first look at Suri Cruise.

Couric concluded the broadcast with a retrospective look at all the ways other anchors--including Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy--have signed off and asked viewers to send in their ideas of how she should. More on this from Greg Sheffied here.