CBS Is Willing to Consider More Than One Anchor

CBS, showing a willingness to shake up its venerable news division, may tap two or more anchors to fill Dan Rather’s chair when he retires in March.

“After the first of the year we’ll come to a decision about what we’re going to do,” Viacom Inc. Co-chief Operating Officer Leslie Moonves, who oversees CBS, told reporters in a conference call Tuesday. “It could be more than one person.”

Moonves added that the headhunting process gives CBS an opportunity to rethink its approach to news.

“With Dan leaving, it’s a time of transition,” he said. “People are going to have to look at news differently, and certainly we are.”

The search for a replacement “is certainly one of the biggest things on my plate right now,” Moonves said.

CBS has previously used dual anchors for the “Evening News.” From 1993 to 1995, Rather co-anchored the newscast with Connie Chung. But the experiment earned a tepid response from critics and finally ended after reports of behind-the-scenes friction between the pair.

Rather, who replaced Walter Cronkite as the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in 1981, announced his retirement last week after coming under heavy fire for a “60 Minutes” report in September that relied on questionable documents.

The network is currently awaiting an independent report on the ensuing scandal from former U.S. Atty. Gen. Richard L. Thornburgh and former Associated Press executive Louis D. Boccardi.

Moonves said he’d had “one three-minute meeting” with the panel, whose report is expected this month.

Although early reports have said CBS News’ John Roberts and Scott Pelley have the inside track on the anchor job, Moonves batted aside such speculation, joking: “We may bring in the cast of ‘Friends’ to do the evening news.... Anything’s possible.”