Debut Day: Part I

Yesterday marked the return of two of television’s most popular talking heads. Popular for good and bad reasons. There was Rosie O’Donnell on The View, which I love to watch so much. and then there was Katie Couric on the CBS Nightly News. I set my DVR for both.

First up: Katie. I had to see how she’d compare to Bob Schieffer. Oh, right, no competition there. I mean Dan Rather. Tom Brokaw. Walter Cronkite. All right, so the comparisons are unfair. This was Couric’s broadcast and will be probably for the next 25 years. Or the length of her initial contract, depending on how she does. So how did she do?

Um. Well. It was the first night and, while I did have an idea of how 22 or 23 minutes of nightly “news” has been presented since I’ve been watching television, I went into it with an open mind. After all, she is the first woman to officially anchor such a show on a solo basis.

It started off not with news, but with a feature on the return of the Taliban, presented as though it had been developed for “60 Minutes.” Then there was some other stuff and then an interview, shot earlier (in the day? she didn’t specify. I had to assume because she was wearing the same jacket), with a New York Times columnist about our nation’s leader. There was even a shot of Couric during this interview, looking at her questions or thinking or something, which I know SNL will pick up at some point and do a voiceover. Or maybe Colbert.

And then some kind of a snapshot segment. I don’t know. I fast-forwarded. Then there were kids with paintings. What was that? And finally there was a segment called “Free Speech,” which will allow all sorts of people, known and otherwise, to have a shot at saying whatever it is they want. Couric told us that we wouldn’t always agree with what is said, but here it is.

The maker of that I’m-gonna-eat-fast-food-till-I-get-sick-and-die film (ok, it was  "Super Size Me"-maker Morgan Spurlock) inaugurated the segment and began talking about talking. It’s our right, he said. Free speech. And let’s just not listen to the people on the outside of the country talking about “my mama” something or other in front of a camera. That the majority of the people are in the middle of the country and some other stuff and, well, two things crossed my mind: 1) shut up; 2) start a blog.

I know Couric has some sort of control over the segments, line-up, etc. But it’s got to be news. If I wanted to watch “60 Minutes,” I would. Or one of the other million and five news magazine shows. It’s just gotta be news and at the end, the final minute and 30 seconds, then it can be something frilly and pointless. Ease us into 7 o’clock.

I’m giving her another chance. And then I might start comparing her to the other network channels. She doesn’t need to try so hard to make her mark. She did that by getting the job. But changing a nightly news format as familiar as this one serves no purpose. She doesn’t have to, and so shouldn’t, try so hard to reinvent her ring of the news circus.