TV: Anchor Schieffer says network has reasons for optimism

12:11 PM CST on Sunday, November 27, 2005

By ED BARK / The Dallas Morning News

Things are looking up, ever so slightly, for the long-dormant CBS Evening News.

It has averaged 7.22 million viewers for the first nine weeks of the ongoing season, up 190,000 from the same period last year. Meanwhile, the front-running NBC Nightly News is drawing 9.52 million viewers (down 570,000) and ABC's World News Tonight has averaged 8.49 million viewers (down 460,000).

CBS still has miles and miles to go, but interim anchor Bob Schieffer says, "I think we can see some daylight now."

The Fort Worth native recently had lunch with new CBS News president Sean McManus, who asked him, "Would you hang in there for a while?"

"I'm gonna do it as long as I can be helpful," says Mr. Schieffer, who succeeded Dan Rather in March. "But this is still not the job I want to do for the rest of my life."

He's buoyed, however, by the emergence of several young Evening News reporters, particularly Lara Logan.

"She's the next Barbara Walters," he says of Ms. Logan, who has been CBS' principal correspondent in Iraq. "In addition to being very smart, let's face it, she's beautiful."

Mr. Schieffer also praises the work of Dallas-based correspondent Lee Cowan ("All of a sudden he's coming into his own") and Sharon Alfonsi ("She's funny as hell").

"It's like baseball," he says. "You've got to put 'em into the game to see if they're any good. And we're finding some really good ones."

E-mail ebark@dallasnews.com