NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 CBS says Scott Pelley is out as \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d anchor after six years in the role, and network veteran Anthony Mason will fill in temporarily as a search for a\u2026<\/b>
\nBy David Bauder
NEW YORK \u2014 CBS\u2019 effort to brand itself as the home of hard-edged newscasts has been a success in the morning, not so much in the evening \u2014 and \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d anchor Scott Pelley paid the price for it with his job.
The network announced Wednesday that Pelley will return full-time to \u201c60 Minutes, \u201d the flagship newsmagazine where he divided his time in the six years since he replaced Katie Couric as evening news anchor. Twenty-year CBS veteran Anthony Mason will fill in on the evening news until a permanent successor is chosen.
The transition has already been a little messy: CBS had intended to announce it next week, but when workers began packing Pelley\u2019s belongings at his evening news office into boxes Tuesday night, word of his departure spread.
With its influence diminished at the turn of the decade, CBS News sought to mold its newscasts in the meatier image of \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d It named the newsmagazine\u2019s most influential correspondent, Pelley, as evening anchor and installed the team of Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O\u2019 Donnell at the newly named \u201cCBS This Morning.\u201d
The strategy has worked beyond the network\u2019s dreams in the morning. Once invisible, CBS is now competitive with ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d and NBC\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d show \u2014 still third but gaining fast. Pelley won respect and some early ratings success in the evening. But he was never truly competitive with ABC and NBC, and lately has slid further behind.
Pelley\u2019s onscreen demeanor \u2014 \u201cstrict and steeling, disavowing both charm and irony\u201d \u2014 was appropriate for the nation\u2019s mood in the wake of last decade\u2019s financial crisis, said news consultant Andrew Tyndall, who studies the content of evening newscasts. But it has proven less so for the Trump era. Despite a heightened interest in news that has propelled cable personalities like Rachel Maddow to new heights in recent months, the evening newscasts haven\u2019 t benefited. Collectively, the three networks reach 24.2 million each night, down 4 percent from last year, the Nielsen company said.
In recent months, Pelley has attracted attention, and some anger from the president\u2019s supporters, for blunt assessments of President Donald Trump\u2019s moves.
CBS gave no public reason for removing Pelley from the evening news either in Wednesday\u2019s announcement or in a conference call with employees. In such situations, ratings usually tell the story.
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Unease about white supremacy grows after Portland stabbings\t But its executives stressed the importance of having Pelley full-time at \u201c60 Minutes\u201d as the newsmagazine.
\u201cThe milestone 50th season of 60 MINUTES requires Scott\u2019s full contribution, and we look forward to important reporting from him for many years to come, \u201d CBS News President David Rhodes said.
Pelley, 59, was on assignment overseas Wednesday. He\u2019 ll be back at the \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d Monday for a short period before Mason takes over. In a statement, Pelley said of his evening news colleagues that \u201cI find my heart filled with gratitude for the opportunity to know you, humility in light of your sacrifices, and hope for the future of journalism because of the standards you live by. CBS has been great to me for nearly 30 years. I\u2019 m glad to accept this assignment with continuing gratitude.\u201d
There have been behind-the-scenes signals that a shift was coming. As he heads into a job where his day-to-day presence in the office is less important, Pelley has recently bought a ranch in Texas and put a house in Connecticut on the market.
It\u2019s not clear whether Mason will be a candidate for the full-time job. His colleagues on Wednesday\u2019s conference call were told he\u2019 d committed to the interim job through the end of the year if no one is named earlier, said a staff member on the call who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk about it.
Potential candidates include CBS\u2019 Jeff Glor and CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper or Anderson Cooper. But in a reflection of television news\u2019 changed circumstances, other CBS personalities like O\u2019 Donnell or \u201cFace the Nation\u201d host John Dickerson are not expected to be candidates. The role of evening news anchor was once clearly the top job in broadcast journalism but now has less influence; CBS would be loath to break up its morning team because that\u2019s where it makes more money.
\u201cIt would be a mistake to take from this that people don\u2019 t want a solid news program, \u201d said Lee Kamlet, a former ABC News producer and dean of the communications school at Quinnipiac University. \u201cBut they are more inclined to want it in the morning, when they haven\u2019 t been on their news and social media feeds throughout the night.\u201d
For all the attention Maddow and other cable personalities get, however, Pelley routinely reached twice as many people each night.
Pelley\u2019s newscast had more international news and a tougher tone than its rivals, but it wasn\u2019 t necessarily breaking news-dependent, Tyndall said. It was more dependent on its own video than special effects; in short, it looked more like \u201c60 Minutes, \u201dhe said.
\u201cThe Trump Presidency does certainly not represent normal times for political journalism, \u201d Tyndall said. \u201cYet, perhaps, censoriousness is too narrow a tone to adopt in response to it. Perhaps that journalistic response should be leavened with bemusement and irony.\u201d<\/p>\n

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