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Katie Couric's Big Night
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 6, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 6, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Last night, Katie Couric made her CBS Evening News debut. Overall, the newscast was perfectly fine - no banter, a long Lara Logan feature on going in Taliban-run Afghanistatn, an interview (sorta like The Daily Show, just without the humor) with the NY Times' Thomas L. Friedman, a segment from Morgan "30 Days" Spurlock, and what the public has really been waiting for, pictures of baby Suri Cruise (she has a crazy head of hair!). Sure, people tuned in for last night's broadcast, but will they tune in every day? Are you going to watch? And are you going to help Katie pick a sign-off?
As for critical roundup: The NY Times' Alessandra Stanley's appraisal of Couric notes that she handled things "calmly and competently," but says that the "woman who stood out most last night" was chief foreign correspondent Logan. Stanely called her "unusually pretty," and in the Washington Post TV columnist Tom Shales' review, he calls Logan "intensely telegenic." Further confirmation of the verdict that Logan is a stone-cold fox. Shales said the show was too full of features, didn't care for Spurlock, thought the Suri pictures were stooping to the level of Entertainment Tonight, and essentially said there was "acres and acres of room for improvement." Oh, and that Couric's white jacket made her looky chunky - MEOW. (We do appreciate Katie for wearing white after Labor Day, but that's just us.)
The Daily News' David Bianculli liked the show, except for the interview segment. Newsday's Verne Gay said that Couric and the newscast were fine, but "some viewers could be excused for wondering, 'what happened in the world today?'" The Hollywood Reporter's headline: "Couric's cuddly news a big disappointment." And TV Newser has roundups of reviews in 1, 2, 3 posts.
And the Post reports that Couric had a post-debut party at the Hudson Hotel.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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