Couric is no stranger, poll finds

Good news for Katie Couric: Lots of people know her and like her.

In fact, Couric, who takes the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair Sept. 5, is better known than her soon-to-be rivals, according to a poll released Thursday by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

When asked to give their general impressions of each network news anchor in a single word, 66% of respondents were able to express an opinion of Couric. This compares with 49% for Charles Gibson, who recently took over ABC’s “World News” (after many years at that network’s “Good Morning America”), and 47% for Brian Williams of “NBC Nightly News,” the survey found.

Although 40% of all respondents’ one-word impressions of Couric had a positive tone (compared with 36% for Gibson and 34% for Williams), she also scored higher in words deemed negative (including liberal, biased, bad, annoying and overrated), with 14%. This compared with 4% for Gibson and 5% for Williams.

The survey was based on telephone interviews among a nationwide sample of 1,506 adults 18 and older, conducted Aug. 9-13. Sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.