NEWS CHIEF PREDICTS REBOUND BY CBS

Saying that CBS News “had a summer of discontent and now we’re ready to roll,” CBS News President Howard Stringer met out-of-town TV writers here Tuesday with a lot of enthusiasm but little news.

However, in a declaration that will send agents for young male TV reporters scurrying, he said he has the option of pairing “an unknown” with Kathleen Sullivan on CBS News’ upcoming weekday morning program.

That two-hour program, which may resemble NBC’s “Today” show in format, will debut Nov. 30, succeeding the flop “Morning Program” that bowed in January with Mariette Hartley and Rolland Smith.

It’s vital that the new program work, Stringer told a press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria here, otherwise it not only will continue getting third-place ratings, but also third-rated guests. He jocularly cited examples, namely “Burt Reynolds’ cousin” and “failed sitcom stars.”

He said he has “five or six” co-anchor prospects in mind but declined to name them. He’ll test them off-camera with Sullivan in the next few weeks, he said, “and see how they match.”

One CBS newsman who’s been mentioned as Sullivan’s possible anchor mate is offbeat economic correspondent Robert Krulwich--but Stringer said he doesn’t want the job.

Whoever is chosen, Stringer said, must be someone “who is intelligent, who is witty, who has perspective, who has enthusiasm and energy,” and who can be all that early in the morning five days a week.

Stringer, whose division was plagued with low morale last March after it suffered a $30-million budget cut and a layoff of 215 employees, took pains to emphasize that CBS News’ gloomy days are over and that good times lie ahead.

Citing the division’s new “48 Hours” series that was announced last week and will premiere in January, Stringer said, “I want to send out a clarion call that CBS News is not only alive and well, it’s kicking the competition all over the place.”

The impending arrival of “48 Hours” does not mean the impending exit of “CBS Reports” documentaries, said Stringer, who only four years ago was the executive producer of those documentaries. “We’ll still do the long form,” he said.