• Broadcasting & Cable, Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:15 PM

Les Moonves' strategy of underpromising and overdelivering is a sound one, but it is also one that CBS failed to follow with its "carnivalesque" launch of the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric." Following a splashy, multimillion-dollar media campaign, 13.6 million curious viewers sampled her maiden newscast Sept. 5. But it has been headed downhill ever since--falling back into third place in the key 25-54 age group, where NBC and ABC are locked in a near-tie for the top spot.

CBS News is spinning hard, pointing up the newscast's increased viewership over last year, "but Couric's inability to get more of those early samplers to come back--along with tales of tension in the newsroom--has to be making the CBS brass a tad nervous."

Couric's overhaul has dismantled a savvy structure that coalesced under her predecessor, interim anchor Bob Schieffer, when the emphasis was on the news division's A-team correspondents. Now the focus is on features that eat into the news well and fall flat. "And for a former morning anchor looking to shed her reputation for fluff, Couric ought to reconsider the warm fuzzies."

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