After a drum roll that lasted practically the entire summer, Katie Couric finally took her flying leap last night, belly flopping with such a spectacular splash that only those who wish her ill could have sat through the whole, jaw-droppingly bad show from beginning to end. What could the brass at CBS have been thinking when they decided, apparently, to promote this as the biggest TV event of the year?  And could yesterday have been so absolutely uneventful that nearly the entirety of Katie’s wretched debut as an anchorwoman could have been devoted, as indeed it was, to the sort of mindless fluff we expect in the final minutes of the nightly news? This was television plumbing yet new lows, the culmination of a circus of self-absorption and hubris so brazenly unabashed as to make the recent JonBenet wallow look respectable in comparison. “How should I sign off?” Katie narcissistically asked the audience, as her producer cued up a montage of Edward Murrow, Walter Cronkite and other greats offering up their signature good-byes.    

How will CBS handle this dreadful turkey?  If it were a Broadway show, the curtain would never rise on a second performance and Katie would be out looking for work. But the network has far too much riding on her to pack it in so soon, and it’s probably going to take at least a few weeks before they toss a few of their own best and brightest to the lions before tossing her as well. In the meantime, we can expect a very drastic retooling of the show, a gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands in the boardroom,  and, finally, a tacit admission from the higher-ups that neither Katie’s perky cuteness nor some whack-o producer’s frivolous format experiments are going to cut it in the well-settled world of nightly news.