1999-2010

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Katie Couric didn't work out. Duh.

So who's really surprised that Katie Couric's time at the CBS Evening News didn't work out? From the start, we saw the injection of the perky pudgy celebrity into the CBS News hot seat as Les Moonves' way of throwing a bomb into CBS News and taking out the too-powerful nabobs with their liberal agenda. And with Katie's imminent departure announced the same week it's "leaked" that the news division may soon be farming out field work to CNN producers and reporters, it appears that Moonves' plan is unfolding, after all.

It's not bragging to say we were laughing at the idea as far back as December 2005, when we wrote:

"Here’s some free advice for Sean McManus and Les Moonves and CBS News. Save the $20 million a year. Katie Couric’s not worth it. She’s a former cutie who’s been temporarily retooled into a glamour puss. She’s pushing fifty. She’s not going to age well, physically or emotionally. And people don’t like to work with her. Katie’s a morning show host. Reading the TelePrompter and gravitas ain’t her shtick. Give her a talk show and move on.

"Besides, it’s a new century. The network news half hour is over. It doesn’t matter!"


But for real prescience, there was LA Dodger Jon at the neglected (by him) Hollywood Thoughts, who, two years ago in a post entitled "Katie Couric is the new Kathie Lee, "predicted the entire timetable (with the bizarre twist that Katie's imminent departure is announced the same week Kathie Lee Gifford climbs on board the Today show).

And if we all knew it wasn't going to work, CBS had to know. Right? Just like the people at Fox had to know that Chevy Chase would never work as a talk show host. Right? We realize the newsies in the CBS "fishbowl" are out of touch with America, but the corporate overlords can't be that out of touch with reality. We'll stick with our theory that there was a lot more to the Katie Couric era than has yet been revealed. And repeat our suggestion that Ann Curry's a better choice.

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