Despite the fanfare, the revamp faltered and Ms Couric's show still languishes in a distant third place in the ratings behind the two rival newscasts presented by men. CBS Evening News was watched by 5.9 million viewers in the week ending March 31, compared with 8.3 million for NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams and 8 million for ABC's World News with Charles Gibson. Ms Couric and CBS are said to be preparing to part company halfway through her five-year contract. The Wall Street Journal said that Ms Couric could leave after the inauguration of the new US president in January.
When she took over, Ms Couric experimented with a chatty approach and longer interviews, sometimes conducted beside a fireplace. The initial curiosity attracted audiences of more than ten million for the first few days but her ratings slumped below those of her male predecessor, Bob Schieffer, who filled in when the long-time anchor Dan Rather was forced out over a discredited report on President Bush's service in the National Guard.
Ms Couric lamented that the staid news format prevented her bubbly personality from coming through. Viewers used to seeing her do cooking demonstrations and banter about celebrities on the top-rated NBC show Today found it hard to watch her present news of politics and war. “Suddenly when I was put in a format where it was not personality-driven at all — I think it was a bit of an adjustment for people,” she said at the National Press Club. “They're like: 'What happened to her? She used to be fun'.”
At times her frustration boiled over. Last year she admitted to slapping a news editor who put the word “sputum” — a word she detests — in a piece about tuberculosis. The audience for network news has been dwindling as Americans get more and more of their information from 24-hour cable TV and the internet. The total viewership of the NBC, ABC and CBS evening news shows fell 5 per cent last year to 23 million.
Both CBS and Ms Couric played down the news of an impending split. “We have no plans for any changes regarding Katie,” the network said. Ms Couric said that she was “working hard and having fun” on the show. However, she is reportedly being offered a syndicated talk show or a full-time role on CBS's flagship 60 Minutes news magazine. Speculation is rife that she could replace Larry King, the 74-year-old talk show host, on CNN.
Women in the news:
— Women first read the news on radio during the General Strike of 1926
— Angela Rippon, Britain’s first full-time female newsreader, made her first BBC broadcast in 1966
— When Kate Adie became chief news correspondent in 1991, only three of the BBC’s 25 war reporters were women
— Natasha Kaplinsky joined Five News last year for a reported £1 million a year. Six weeks later she announced that she was three months pregnant
— Palestine TV employs 15 women newsreaders. Recently they marched in protest at death threats
Further reading: CBS News, Katie Couric are likely to part ways
