| 80 |
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
She offered a real mix that suggested the CBS Evening News will be a fascinating place to visit. |
| 75 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
The former "Today" co-host's maiden voyage in her new post was impressive. She was serious at the start, folksy at the end, and poised and professional throughout. |
| 70 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
The broadcast opened with swooping flair and kept up an energetic pace throughout. |
| 70 |
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
The pace of Tuesday’s telecast was brisk. The story mix seemed about as interesting as a 22-minute newscast can be these days. |
| 63 |
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
The premiere of "The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" was professional, fairly relevant and only slightly cheesy. |
| 60 |
Variety Brian Lowry
The more intriguing question was whether CBS would make good on early pledges to try to reinvent the wheel, to which the answer is an unqualified "No." Instead, they have simply put a new and undeniably expensive face behind it. |
| 60 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
After months of media hype befitting the inauguration of a head of state, the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" debuted tonight and revealed itself to be ... a normal national newscast. |
| 60 |
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
The network’s new face handled her first day at the anchor desk... calmly and competently. |
| 60 |
USA Today Robert Bianco
The broadcast itself was very much network news business as usual — and so was Couric's performance. |
| 60 |
Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz
If most of her debut was solid if not spectacular - almost by design, seemed like - the ending fell flat. |
| 60 |
Baltimore Sun David Zurawik
As conversational as her predecessor, Bob Schieffer, could be, Couric is even more casual -- nearly over-the-back fence chatty at times, in fact. |
| 60 |
Boston Globe Joanna Weiss
She was a genial viewer stand-in, even during a slightly bewildering interview of New York Times columnist Tom Friedman . It wasn't anything Bob Schieffer couldn't have done, but then, Schieffer isn't a brand. |
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
Unfortunately, the writing on Couric's newscast -- she's also managing editor -- was lax and corny. |
| 40 |
Slate Troy Patterson
The CBS Evening News is making a serious commitment to quality entertainment. |
| 33 |
Entertainment Weekly Gillian Flynn
Am I holding evening news to a higher standard than morning talk? Absolutely. It should be challenging, not childish. |
| 30 |
Washington Post Tom Shales
Couric's broadcast did not seem to hasten the decline and fall of TV news, but it didn't offer anything really new, either -- and on its first outing, it didn't offer anything news. |
| 30 |
Newark Star-Ledger Matt Zoller Seitz
Couric's demeanor as a newscaster isn't the problem -- at least, not most of the time. The problem is the broadcast's graceless lunge toward morning show affectations, which are presumably supposed to make "The CBS Evening News" seem fresh, exciting and a tad cheeky, but come off as opportunistic instead. |
| 30 |
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
Katie Couric was great, but what have they done to The CBS Evening News? |
| 20 |
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
TV's first solo woman anchor, it seems, will preside over a news-flavored broadcast that consists of one or two news pieces, a few headlines and a host of soft features. |
| 20 |
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
[It] seemed an uneasy imitation of the soft-core morning news genre from which she came. |
