CBS Evening News w/ Katie Couric

Strange - CBS Evening News has disappeared from the Sky News EPG listing; it was there earlier. Looks like Sky have pulled it to repeat for the twentieth time the Blair news. Because of this and the CBSNews.com website block (which is new because I was able to watch Evening News content on it last week) looks like everyone will have to wait until tommorow, if Sky News can actually be arsed to show it.

Caps from wikipedia:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/CBS_Evening_News_w_Katie_Couric.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/KatieCouricCBSEveningNews.jpg
Cap from Breitbart.com
http://www.breitbart.com/images/2006/9/5/D8JUVS4G0/D8JUVS4G0_preview.jpg
Caps from CBS:
http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2006/09/05/image1971327g.jpghttp://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2006/09/05/image1971610g.jpg

Downloads here.

They open, but for me, don't display properly in Quick Time. However, I can open the downloaded file and watch it in Real Player.

I quite like the music...

Shame on Sky for dropping the showings - no sense of occasion!

I think the people over at CBS News have done a great job of revamping the show. The graphics are very good in comparison to what the others have.

I managed to get it playing though. Strange. Now watching "Evening News Online, 9.5.06 - Part 4" of it. Im in Singapore.

Yes, it's a nice refresh of a tried and true format.

Let's have a run-down: Three or four stories in the opening headlines...all read to music, the stock index quotes provided at first commercial, the first commercial after the main story and a quick read of other headlines (not elaborated upon), two or three feature segments with catchy titles (e.g., "Eye on Your Money"), a sensationalist story about a movie star's baby (human interest), and a closing segment that was personalized to develop rapport between anchor and audience. In short, this is exactly what American network news has been for the last couple of decades.

So this proves that women can do it just as well as men can. Except that Couric is being a bit too...girly and cute? Somehow she doesn't seem as cool as Barbara Walters and Connie Chung were when they co-anchored Evening News programmes.

For example, "Hi Everyone! I'm very happy to be with you tonight. ..." That is not a professional opener. "Good evening" works very well.

And, there's also the "deciding on a sign-off" segment, where viewers were encouraged to suggest a closing slogan for Couric...something along the lines of Cronkite's famous "and that's the way it is [insert date]." I'm afraid we're about to witness to a lot of mimmickry and silly forms of audience participation, when instead we could have another feature segment (maybe about something important or useful too).

By the way, although Couric wasn't supposed to be a "voice of God anchor" like those that preceded her, on Tuesday night she had more air time than Brian Williams and about as much as Charles Gibson.

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/05/arts/06COURIC.gif

Three ad-breaks in a 30 minute news bulletin!

Oh how I despair for the Land of the Free.

We have the same on our commercial news bulletins

Bloody Sky - I knew they'd do it - they just can't take a break!

Don't they realise people watching at that time have probably seen the story covered numerous times already and want something different!


Anyone care to e-mail them and find out what's going on?


P.S. Never mind the ads (that's a US TV standard anyhow!) - it's the sponsorship by Walmart I'd find more concerning!

It's now nearly 24 hours after the CBS Evening News w/ Katie Couric debuted, and generally, reaction has been positive. Admittedly, some commentators have criticised the lack of news stories featured in last night's broadcast, but it was a slow news day (the one after Labor Day usually is). Moreover, as it was a slower news day, it gave us the opportunity to concentrate on three or four stories in a little bit more depth. Lara Logan's report from Afghanistan was superb.

For those of you back home who have not yet seen the full newscast, I've got a copy of it so will upload at some point. Comments have been passed about the new broadcast has tried to link to various stages in its history and also break new ground. It retains the opening bars of the previous theme music and last night had Walter Cronkite voice the open. But the scale of the studio, the diversity of media through which it is available, the change in the style of its reportage to more in depth analysis and the structure of the newscast (in studio interviews by Katie, etc) shows that the network is evolving the concept of the nightly news casts.

There is obviously going to be a cut off point in a few weeks where things get tweaked, ditched, etc., but so far, we're all happy with the broadcast. As both Bob Schieffer and Katie Couric noted in interviews last week, it's the media that has hyped this to something it may or may not be. From our perspective, it's a change of anchor (with a fresh bit of studio around it). It's long term change, not short term change.

Anyhow, for those you whom may be interested, here's a link to a 30 second snippet of the theme...

http://mfile.akamai.com/15086/wma/media.marketwatch.com/wsj/audio/20060901/CBS/CBS.asx

Let me know if you have ay questions or comments!

I liked it presentation wise, except on the videoscreen, there were garrish fonts. It was too fast paced,like today, they only breifly mentioned the space shuttle, yet ABC had a full report. But the set is great.

The music is superb, and I don't find it fair that the NY daily news called it a "Ertaz imatation of Copland" . I find it to sound something likean JOhn williams compostion.

All in all, I like it, but It won't stop me from watching ABC. Sorry! It's better than NBC though!

Also, I noticed Charles Gibson was in DC. Are they getting a new set?

Can you upload the full video for us? I dont mind downloading the whole programme.