Legendary Rick Kaplan To Take Over Helm Of Couric’s Sagging CBS Evening News

Why is Katie Couric — a vastly under-appreciated journalist — wearing a smile turned upside down these days?

It’s because even with her megabucks contract, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric has been mired in third place, with signs of yet more erosion. CBS never seemed to come up with the right formula for using Couric who, despite some writers poking fun at some of her human interest interviews on the Today Show, has conducted some excellent hard newes interviews over the years. CBS had just made ratings headway with the also-vastly-under appreciated Bob Schieffer, who replaced the over-exposed Dan Rather.

But now CBS has called in the Big Broadcasting Gun — someone who is unquestionably a legend, the epitome of a broadcast and news pro. It’s a sign that CBS felt a substantive change was in order — and ABC and NBC might start to feel a little less assured:

Rick Kaplan, the legendary producer and former president of CNN and MSNBC, will be named executive producer of the “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric.”

Sources said late Wednesday that Rome Hartman, who had been named producer of the broadcast in late 2005, would be replaced by Kaplan as early as today. Hartman, a former “60 Minutes” producer and a favorite of CBS News president Sean McManus, will be reassigned to another high post at CBS News.

CBS News declined comment late Wednesday.

Sources said McManus made the decision and not Couric, who also is managing editor of the broadcast, though she was aware of it happening. The broadcast’s third-place ranking in the ratings was a major factor in the decision, and the network wants a harder-edged, faster-paced newscast than has been seen in the six months since Couric took to the air.

The announcement marks the return to network television of one of its most accomplished producers. Kaplan most recently was president of MSNBC before leaving in June. He was president of CNN from 1997-2000 and was a senior vp at ABC News during his second stint at the network. Kaplan was executive producer of ABC’s “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings” beginning in 1994 after creating and executive producing “Primetime Live” from 1989-94 and stints as executive producer of “Nightline,” “World News This Morning” and “Good Morning America.” At CBS he was an associate producer of the “CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite” from 1974-79.

In a sense what has happened is that Couric has fallen into same trap that the brilliantly funny David Letterman did when he hosted the Oscars in 1995.

If you recall, he was almost universallly panned because he seemingly tried to graft parts of his late night show onto that creaky, established broadcast institution known as the Oscars. Letterman did his usual schtick but seemed uneasy with format. The theater audience seemed to feel it was awkward and it didn’t score with TV audience. (Letterman should be given another chance: he’d probably be the greatest Oscar host in years.)

And so it goes with Couric.

She was offered big bux to come over to CBS because she was such an appealing and popular host at the Today Show — plus because she does have some journalistic chops. And the result? A seeming attempt to graft parts of her Today Show persona with a bit of the morning news show form so that without officially saying so the newscast morphed a more featury mix. It was a near fatal mistake because Couric has been accused (wrongly) of having been a soft news journalist in her stint at Today. And the feel of this newscast has allowed her to be continue to be characterized by some critics as a seemingly hard news challenged.

If format has been awkward, Couric has seemed somewhat ill at ease. Meanwhile, some of her high profile interviews were criticized for not being tough enough — interviews that seemed more for the “get” of someone famous then for news-making content (which often comes from asking TOUGH questions).

So Couric often got the “get” but didn’t “get” her new role: she needs to be more hard-news Wolf Blitzer (although she would look bad with a beard) and the less feature-news, interview “get” Barbara Walters (or — God fordid — the 21st century incarnation of Walters that now appears on The View).

And the pace? CBS should realize it’s now living in the MTV generation, an era with screeching talking heads on cable news and constantly updated weblogs.

A nice, stand back feature or investigative piece is OK but CONTENT is what will increase the broadcast’s ratings — more of it and more smartly packaged. When Couric took over much talk was about how to ease the network newscast into the 21st century. It now seems as if some of the assumptions were wrong (lighter and more featury may not work).

Couric has been poorly served at CBS. Not because of her flaws but because of the way she and her newscast have been packaged.

If Kaplan can show viewers the Couric who conducted some hard-nosed interviews on Today, quicken the pace, and put more substance along with a flashy set CBS ratings will likely steadily increase.

And then Katie Couric’s frown will be upside down….

ALSO READ:
Rebecca Daniels at Slate, who wonders Does Couric’s rocky start at CBS spell trouble for Hillary Clinton?
–Newsbusters’ take on Kaplan.