CBS Cancels 'CSI: Miami,' 'Rob' & 'NYC 22,' Renews 'CSI:NY'
Mad Men Recap: "Mad Money"
anchor
Katie Couric set to move to CBS -- BREAKING NEWS
We've been reading these rumours
for months now, but it finally looks like the speculation is about to end. TV Week says that Today
Show diva Katie Couric is about to sign a deal to become the anchor of the CBS Evening News. An
announcement is said to be coming this week. If the report is true, it'll be interesting to see how NBC handles it.
Will they allow Katie to continue on the Today Show until the end of her contract in May and have a big
farewell event at the end? Will they let her out of her contract early and have her join CBS right away? (Extremely
doubtful on that one!) The article goes on to say that The View's Meredith Vieira is being considered, among
others, as a candidate to take Couric's slot. (Anyone but Star Jones!).
Will Katie Couric bring viewers back to the CBS Evening News? Certainly, there will be quite a bit of interest just for curiousity's sake, but will it last past the first few weeks? This oughta be good...
Former anchorman Bill Beutel dead at 75
Bill Beutel may be most recognizable to New Yorkers, as he
anchored the WABC evening newscasts for 30 years, right up until January of 2001. He briefly returned to WABC as a
reporter after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. His trademark sign-off was, "Good luck and be well."
He also briefly hosted the morning program on ABC that eventually became Good Morning America. Beutel won
several Emmy awards and a coveted Peabody.Beutel died at his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Elizabeth Vargas is having a boy
According to the New York Post, ABC World News Tonight anchor
Elizabeth Vargas is having a boy. The network news anchor is due in late summer. The little boy will be her second son. She and husband, singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, have another son, Zachary, who is three.
Bob Woodruff leaves the hospital -- UPDATE
ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff was
released from a military hospital today, six weeks after being seriously injured by a roadside
bomb in Iraq. He suffered injuries to his neck, head, face, and chest and will requires many more months of
rehabilitation, first in a private facility and then at his home. When he was released, doctors say he was laughing and
joking with family and staff. Doug Vogt, the ABC cameraman also injured in the explosion, was released from the hospital
in February.ABC News has said that Woodruff is welcome to return to the anchor chair when he is ready. In the meantime, Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson have been subbing for him. ABC will dedicate Monday's entire episode of World News Tonight to the third anniversary of the Iraq war.
Will Meredith Viera replace Katie Couric?
Fearing it might be losing Katie Couric to CBS, NBC apparently is
trying to woo Meredith Viera of The View and Who Wants to be a Millionaire to take over Couric's spot
on The Today Show, should the pixie-ish personality decide to head to CBS. Now, understand that none of this is
official, and Couric still has until May 10 to let NBC know whether or not she'll accept the anchor position on the
CBS Evening News. However, given Viera's many meetings with NBC execs, it looks as if it's probably going to
happen. Unless, of course, it doesn't.
While most of us know Viera for gossipy fare like The View, she does have a background in journalism. She helped develop the short-lived but well-respected news program West 57th, and also worked at CBS News, spending part of her time there as a co-editor on 60 Minutes in the early 1990s.
[via Lost Remote]
Seacrest debuts on E! News tonight
As Anna
mentioned previously, Ryan Seacrest, the hardest working metrosexual in show business, signed on with E!
News as a co-anchor and managing editor. Well, tonight is his big debut, so we'll get to see just how adept he is
at making the trivial sound exciting, which is pretty much the only criteria for being an entertainment reporter:
"Queen Latifah was seen yesterday wearing a BLUE HAT!" Oh yeah, Idol fans need not worry. Seacrest
is still sticking with the show, as well as his many other TV and radio duties. Of course, now the question is how long
Seacrest can maintain this workload before he actually loses his mind on the air. I think I just gave myself a reason to
tune in.
ABC photographer home from hospital -- UPDATE
Cameraman Doug Vogt is out of the hospital and
headed to the home he shares with his wife in France. Vogt and ABC World News Tonight anchor Bob Woodruff were
riding with a military convoy outside of Baghdad last month when the vehicle
they were riding in hit a roadside bomb. Both men were treated by military personnel and flown to Germany and then
America for treatment. Vogt was released from Bethesda Medical Center this week, but Woodruff remains sedated. Doctors
say Woodruff may be able to move to a care facility near his home in New York in the next few weeks.Peter Jennings Way christened in NYC
A portion of a street in New York City
was renamed Peter Jennings Way during a ceremony yesterday. The street was both near where Jennings lived and where he
worked as an anchor for ABC News. Jennings died of lung cancer in August. The section of street
is on 66th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park. Jennings' widow, two children, the president of ABC News,
and even mayor Michael Bloomberg attended the ceremony.Woodruff, Vogt improving -- UPDATE
Doug Vogt, the ABC camerman who was injured by a roadside
bomb in Iraq, is in an outpatient facility this morning. He was moved to Bethesda Medical Center to continue his
recovery.ABC World News Tonight anchor Bob Woodruff, who was injured in the same attack on Jan. 29, remains sedated. His injuries, to his upper torso, head, face, and brain, are much more serious than Vogt's. Doctors say that Woodruff is showing signs of improvement, but his road to recovery is going to be much longer and harder than Vogt's. In the meantime, ABC News chose to move Woodruff's co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas, off the anchor desk and replace her, at least temporarily, with Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer.
ABC News anchor seriously injured in Iraq
Co-anchor of World News Tonight Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were injured when the
vehicle they were riding in hit a roadside bomb early Sunday morning. The two apparently were standing up in a hatch,
filming a story in the vehicle as it drove along.The two are listed in stable but critical condition, after being flown to the "green zone" where military doctors operated on them. ABC is providing continuous updates on their conditions here.
Concidentally, today's Washington Post features an article about Woodruff and his co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas. In the article, Woodruff says his goal is "to be the best damn foreign correspondent I could be."
Where have all the newsmen gone?
Men
are becoming the minority in newsrooms across the country. According to the Radio-Television News Directors
Association, 42% of anchors are men. That's down from 46% in 1996. One of the reasons? The ultimate goal for many male
journalism students is in sports. But, sports is a dying genre at local news stations across the country. Another
reason, stated in an article in the Boston Globe, is that
anchoring isn't really as manly as it used to be back in the days of Walter Kronkite and Edward R. Murrow. They were a
breed of anchor who came across as tough on government corruption, whereas anchors these days are pretty boys who are
more even-tempered and less aggressive. News readers, really.While it's nice to see that women are kickin' butt in television, it's also a sad commentary on the role of the anchorman in our society and in news in general. These days the anchors are hired as personalities, not news gatherers.
Nightline veteran joins Al-Jazeera International
Ted Koppel appears to have landed on his feet after the demise of
Nightline, and yet another figure from that show has also found new employment. This time it's David Marash,
who left Nightline as a correspondent last year. Marash will be the chief anchor and correspondent of
Al-Jazeera International's Washington bureau when the new network launches this spring. Al-Jazeera International will
be a 24-hour news channel. Four hours of each day would be dedicated to news out of Washington, in addition to a
one-hour newscast co-anchored by Marash.New World News debuts tonight
The new, young faces of World News Tonight debut this evening on ABC. Five months after Peter Jennings' death
from lung cancer, Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff will co-host the nightly newscast. They are the first network anchor
team since Dan Rather and Connie Chung shared the desk at CBS in the 1990s. But, don't expect to see them sharing the
desk very often. Vargas
says it's not going to be two anchors sharing 22 minutes of news, rather, one of them will most likely be
Vargas and Woodruff take over the #2-rated newscast in the nation, with Brian Williams and NBC still on top. CBS has yet to decide what it will do with its open anchor position and there are still whispers that Katie Couric is in contention.
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