Looks like the hype paid off. Katie Couric’s historic debut as the first female solo anchor of a nightly newscast hit the mark. At least that’s what the ratings show. As for her performance reviews—well, it seems everyone’s a critic.
Four days after one of the most talked-about debuts in television history Couric is sitting on top of the heap. Opening night she blasted the competition. According to Neilsen Media Research, nearly 13.6 million people watched Couric’s debut–that’s nearly double the average audience for the “CBS Evening News” last week, and the program’s biggest audience since February 16, 1998, in the midst of the Nagano Olympics. In contrast, NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” which is normally the number one evening newscast, came in second to Couric with just under 7.8 million viewers. Couric ended the week on top of the ratings as well. However, critics are quick to point out that this initial ratings success doesn’t mean that CBS (which sat in last place for years) will remain at number one. One CBS executive admitted: “If you look at history, those shifts take months and years.”
While some reviewers applauded the new set design, graphics and theme music others said the revamped show “veered too far away from news and toward a magazine-y feel.” But as it is in television, not all of the critic’s attention was focused on the show’s content; many didn’t hesitate to sound off on Couric’s choice of wardrobe for her first night as anchor.
One critic wrote: “Couric oddly wore a white blazer over a black top and skirt. The blazer buttoned in such a way as to make her look chubby, bursting at the button, which we know she isn’t.” That was tame compared to the analysis done by a New York Post critic who wrote: “For the first time in history that a female was allowed to deliver a network’s evening news alone, Katie chose to wear an unfortunate white blazer – the result, no doubt, of some jokester lying to her face when Katie asked, ‘Does this make me look fat?’ And the day after Labor Day, to boot!” (A reference to the old fashion rule that it’s taboo to wear white after Labor Day.)
Which leaves me to end with this question: How come we didn’t see this much attention paid to Charlie Gibson’s wardrobe when he recently debuted as anchor of ABC’s evening news?
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