Katie Couric ended her five-year tenure as the anchor for the CBS Evening News, offering an interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and ending the program with a five minute highlight reel (video below. She said it was "an incredible privilege to sit in this chair... To all of you, thank you for coming along with me on this incredible journey."
Couric, whose $15 million/year contract was a sign that CBS hoped she could pull the program into the ratings lead (no luck, it's still third), had been rumored to leave the network many times over the years and she even admitted after one year on the job that she wouldn't necessarily want the job if asked again. Her biggest splash as an interviewer was her infamous 2008 interviews with Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The NY Times' Alessandra Stanley says of Couric's departure, "There wasn’t much sadness on the set. Ms. Couric, brisk and dry-eyed, looked almost relieved as she thanked viewers [for the privilege of hosting the program]... It’s more than likely that Ms. Couric’s colorful five-year tenure at CBS will be remembered not because she was the first woman to serve as the sole anchor of a major network evening news program, but because she could be the last anchor to inspire so much controversy and media attention. And that’s a good thing... As it turned out, that privilege wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but demystifying the anchor role may be Ms. Couric’s greatest contribution of all."
The Daily News's David Hinckley opines:
In any case, Couric's upbeat goodbye couldn't fully dissipate a broader sense that this isn't the way it was supposed to end.
As the first woman named solo anchor of a weeknight network news broadcast, she had some battles to fight, including gender stereotypes.
Brian Williams doing "Saturday Night Live" shows he's human. Couric doing something funny showed she's frivolous.
Couric tried hard to be "serious." It's just unclear if she advanced the ball, and we got one reminder of that on Thursday night.
When she interviewed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, viewers heard the word "I" twice - as in "I talked with her and I asked her" - before we heard anything from Clinton.
It's a small matter, but it reverses the way the best journalism has usually worked: subject and story first.
Whether by design or the media age in which we live, Katie Couric became a "brand." That brand will no doubt serve her well in her next gig.
It's less clear how well it served CBS News.
Couric is headed to ABC, where her new show could kill the last soap opera standing.
