THE CBS EVENING NEWS Outta Cellar

(From The New York Daily News -- By Richard Huff)

Some 14 months after taking over as anchor of
THE CBS EVENING NEWS, BOB SCHIEFFER has taken the show to No. 2 in the evening news race.

"I thought it would be a lot of fun if something like this could happen," Schieffer said yesterday. "As the ratings began to build, you don't want to say it out loud, but in the back of my mind I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice if we could move into second."

For the week ending May 12th according to NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH:

THE CBS EVENING NEWS averaged 7,390,000 viewers.
ABC's WORLD NEWS TONIGHT averaged 7,310,000 viewers.
NBC's NIGHTLY NEWS averaged 8,410,000 viewers.

It was the first time since the week ending August 3rd, 2001, that CBS' evening newscast has been in second place.

The folks at ABC NEWS noted that while CBS passed them for the week, it was just one week, and that ABC drew more viewers with the advertiser-desired news audience of 25 to 54-year-olds.

Still, its a notable milestone for CBS' newscast. In March 2005, DAN RATHER stepped down as anchor, and Schieffer was tapped as a temporary fix. Temporary, as Schieffer was told at the time, would be six weeks. He's been there ever since.

During that time, the show has been overhauled, new young correspondents like LARA LOGAN, TRISH REGAN and
JIM AXLEROD have been elevated, and ratings have grown.

"It's very gratifying to me," Schieffer said. "We're putting on a very good newscast now and putting the spotlight on some of the new correspondents."

Obviously, the win raises uncomfortable questions for CBS about why it hired KATIE COURIC (for $15 million a year) when the network appears to have found near-instant success with Schieffer, who is 69.

"If Bob was at a different point in his career and wanted to continue, it'd be great," says CBS NEWS chief SEAN McMANUS. "But he made it very clear that he would keep the anchor chair for as long as we needed him, but he really wanted to spend more time with (wife) Pat and to ease into -- not retirement -- but slowing down."

Couric is set to start on CBS September 5th.