Friday, June 19, 2026

Scott Pelley is the New Cronkite/Couric/Rather

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It’s official: Scott Pelley is the new anchor of The CBS Evening News. He joins an elite group that includes Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, and Katie Couric. Will Pelley bring a significant change in ratings or attitude to the show? Can he beat Brian Williams or Diane Sawyer? And does it matter any more? I think ‘no’ is the answer to all those questions, but we’ll see. Maybe Pelley will surprise us. My choice would have been Harry Smith, but no one asked. It looks like Pelley will just pick up where Couric leaves off, on Monday June 6th. Is that enough time to build a whole new set and get new theme music? Resurrect Eric Sevareid to do the voice over introduction? Probably not. But Pelley’s assumption the anchor chair should make the old timers at CBS News happy: he’s one of them, and he’s a guy. These were the things they didn’t like about Katie Couric. So even if Pelley never raises the ratings, he’ll be a comfortable, supported fit in house. PS When bin Laden was killed on Sunday, Russ Mitchell did a great job anchoring the whole episode.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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