Couric crumbles under criticism

It seems like the pressure has finally chipped away at the cheerful shell of Katie Couric, who has been under fire for months as ratings for CBS Corp.'s (NYSE: CBS) CBS evening news drift lower. Couric took over the lead anchor spot in early September, and ratings have steadily declined, putting the Eye Network's nightly news in a distant third place.

Now, apparently even Katie herself finds herself occasionally wishing she hadn't jumped from the cushy ship of NBC's Today show to the evening anchor gig. According to an AP story, she recently told New York magazine that "I have days when I'm like 'Oh my God, what did I do?'" but affirmed that "they [these doubtful days] don't happen that often."

Trying to speculate on the broadcast's plunging ratings, Ms. Couric opined that "people are very unforgiving and very resistant to change ... the biggest mistake we made is we tried new things." Further fueling the rumor mills that suspect Couric will be booted from the anchor chair before the end of her five-year contract, she said she looks forward to working more with the 60 Minutes crew and said that "If it turns out [the anchor job] wasn't a perfect fit ... I'll do something else that's really exciting and fulfilling for me."

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.