Katie Couric Out at CBS; Scott Pelley to Replace Her?

As it usually happens in the national media, when a high-profile personality is being bounced from their gig, the news somehow leaks on a Friday night.

The Daily Beast, Drudge Report, and other news sites are all reporting that Katie Couric's exit from the CBS Evening News has been planned when her 5-year contract expires in June.

Couric became the permanent anchor of the CBS Evening News in 2006 after a successful run as co-host on NBC's Today Show.

Couric though has suffered from bad ratings and critics criticizing her performance as an anchor throughout her tenure at CBS.  The Huffington Post back in 2008 chronicled her ratings troubles.

Texas Tech alumnus, and 60 Minutes reporter, Scott Pelley is apparently one of the front-runners to replace Couric:

Pelley, a Texan who began his career at a station in Lubbock, is the opposite of a celebrity journalist. A White House correspondent for CBS during the Clinton administration, he landed the first interview with George W. Bush as president-elect. Pelley has reported from around the world, including such war zones as Iraq and Afghanistan. He and his team have won numerous awards, including 15 Emmys, for stories on such subjects as the BP oil spill, civilian deaths in Iraq, and child slavery in India.

Pelley started his career at KAMC 28 and he was inducted into the Texas Tech Mass Communications Hall of Fame in 2006.

While it would be nice to see Pelley replace Couric, I don't know if it would turn around the CBS Evening News.  Ratings for the three network evening newscasts have been slipping and I think the only way a "modern" anchor could make an impact is if they had a large presence on the Internet, with unique content being created every weekday.

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Do you want to see Scott Pelley replace Katie Couric?  What do you think about the network evening newscasts?  Let me know in the comments below