Katie, you’re on

THE new theme song that will open the “CBS Evening News” tonight is by the same composer who did the score for “Field of Dreams,” so perhaps it’s appropriate for Katie Couric to recall a sentiment from that movie when asked about her hopes of attracting more viewers to the third-place broadcast.

“If we build it, they will come,” she said with a grin.

And after months of speculation, followed by anticipation, Couric and CBS have finally built it.

Few doubt that Couric’s debut on the newscast this evening will inflate the audience in the short-term. From the first rumors that the longtime morning anchor was considering making the jump to CBS, her move has been covered with the kind of intense scrutiny and speculation usually reserved for prospective presidential candidates.

“With all the attention given to not just us, but Charlie [Gibson] and Brian [Williams], I think there’s been more written about this time period in the last three months than probably in history,” said CBS News President Sean McManus.

But it remains to be seen what effect Couric -- who will be the first sole female anchor of a network evening newscast -- will have on the genre, which has been plagued by steady audience erosion for several decades.

In the last year, overall viewership of the three broadcasts has ebbed amid a period of remarkable upheaval behind the anchor desks, one that appears to have finally drawn to a close with Charles Gibson’s appointment to ABC’s “World News” in May and Couric’s arrival at CBS. By the end of the season, NBC remained in the lead, but its audience was down about 5% and ABC had dropped 9%, while CBS had edged upward -- the only newscast to do so.

Executives at all the networks say they hope to benefit from the recent wave of publicity about the new matchup in the evening. But television news analysts warn that reversing the trend in viewership is a difficult proposition, especially during a time when people increasingly seek news and information from other sources.

“I don’t think it would be a surprise if the amount of ink spilled on this floated the audience upward” initially, said Deborah Potter, a former correspondent for CBS and CNN who runs NewsLab, a Washington-based nonprofit journalism training and research center. “But I don’t think people’s lives have changed, and the amount of time they have to spend hasn’t changed.”

So even as the networks gear up for a renewed competition at 6:30 p.m. this fall, another equally important showdown is playing out in a different arena: online.

In their bid to remain relevant, the newscasts are hurriedly developing ways to reach viewers throughout the day. NBC’s Williams, already a veteran blogger, recently began filing a new video blog every morning. ABC’s Gibson does a top-rated podcast every afternoon. And all three broadcasts regularly post video online that viewers can access on-demand, creating their own news program.

“Nobody will argue that there hasn’t been fractionalization of the audience,” said Jon Banner, executive producer of ABC’s “World News.” “That’s why we are investing so heavily in the Web to take advantage of everything at our disposal to reach as many people as possible. The idea is to create, in the ‘World News’ brand, news that is always on.”

In fact, ABC recently went so far as to drop the word “Tonight” from the name of its newscast, a nod to the fact that the program is no longer bound by its slot on the schedule.

CBS is going even further. Beginning today, viewers will be able to watch the “CBS Evening News” online at the same time that it airs on television -- the first time a network news program will be available simultaneously on the Internet and over-the-air. (NBC has offered netcast of the “Nightly News” since October, but it isn’t available until 10 p.m. ET, once the broadcast has finished airing on the West Coast.)

McManus said CBS secured support from its affiliates for the simulcast after finding that Internet streams of the NCAA basketball tournament this spring did not depress the television audience. In fact, he believes this move could ultimately boost viewership of the newscast.

“I actually think if we can get some people who don’t have access to TV at 6:30 to watch online, if they like what they see, maybe they will become regular viewers,” he said.

Still, McManus cautioned that moving out of third place will not be easy, even with one of the country’s best-known broadcasters in the anchor chair.

“I’m not going to consider this a failure if in three months or six months we’re not in first place,” he said. “It’s no secret that the viewership for the television broadcasts is going down and it’s going to be very difficult to grow that overall. That’s why you have to find new revenue streams and new ways to distribute that product.”

In the near future, the networks will talk about the evening news audience as the cumulative number who tune in on various devices, including computers and mobile phones, McManus said. That’s why CBS is making the newscast available on its website as an on-demand program, along with a new blog, Web-exclusive interviews and podcasts.

“The evening newscast will not be simply from 6:30 to 7,” Couric said.

In this changing environment, the traditional broadcasts -- which together commanded 35% of the television audience last season, compared with 50% just a decade ago -- are “still the spine of the news divisions, but not the architecture,” Potter noted.

That being said, none of the networks are giving up on the evening news just yet. With an average of more than 24 million viewers combined watching the three programs, they still command a hefty audience -- one that the news divisions are not about to relinquish.

“There is always going to be a need for these types of broadcasts,” said NBC News President Steve Capus, noting that the audience for the “Nightly News” swelled last month as people tuned in to find out about the thwarted plan to down airplanes over the Atlantic.

Some television veterans suggest that the broadcasts should try to differentiate themselves this fall, when a fresh batch of curious viewers are expected to tune in.

“They’ve been remarkably, almost uncannily similar to one another for quite a while,” said Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News. “There’s an opportunity to reflect somewhat different sensibilities so the programs start becoming less fungible and interchangeable in people’s minds.”

That’s the goal at CBS. When she starts tonight, Couric will introduce new features, including longer analytical pieces about the top story of the day and a “free speech” segment of opinion and commentary -- moves she admits will mean fewer overall stories in the 22-minute broadcast.

“There’s an atmosphere where people are totally open to trying new things -- not reinventing the wheel, but maybe kicking the tire a bit and maybe patching it here and there where needed,” she said. “I think there’s a real attitude of, ‘Let’s give this a whirl and we’ll see what happens.’ ”

But the changes have provoked a bit of apprehension internally, especially among the correspondent corps, some of whom are worried that the lower story count will make it a lot harder to get on the air, network sources said.

Compounding their anxiety is a sense of a cultural shift in the newsroom, which had grown accustomed to anchor Bob Schieffer’s low-key style. When they hired Couric, CBS officials also brought on about half a dozen of the staff that had worked with her at NBC, including an editor who now serves as the newscast’s creative director. And eyebrows were raised when Couric’s new office began filling with dozens of outfits and accessories that had accumulated in her old office at NBC, where she anchored “Today” for 15 years.

Executive producer Rome Hartman said that he hasn’t heard any unease from the correspondents about the new format of the show or Couric’s approach.

“We’re all challenging ourselves to raise the bar and do ever better work, and I think most people I’ve talked to are responding to that challenge with great zest and excitement,” Hartman said.

For all of CBS’ changes, neither of its competitors said they plan to alter their approach this fall.

“We won’t do anything different,” Gibson said. “There is no new theme music that will play. There will be a half an hour of news.”

“These are not broadcasts that respond necessarily to personalities,” added the ABC anchor.

For his part, Williams said he planned to hold onto his lead “by being the best at it.”

“My charge is to on Sept. 5 go on the air with a great newscast,” he said. “That is my charge Sept. 6, as well, and so on and so on. That’s what I’m going to be doing. I’ll be the one with my head down.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Expanding the newscast

You no longer have to tune in at 6:30 p.m. to watch the network evening news. All three programs now offer a slew of online and digital features, including Web-exclusive video. Here’s a sampling:

NBC Nightly News

Nightly.MSNBC.com

* Netcast: A Web-version of the broadcast is posted online every night by 7.

* Blog: Anchor Brian Williams files dispatches about the making of the newscast every afternoon on the “Daily Nightly.”

* Vlog: This summer, Williams began a video blog called the “Early Nightly,” an informal on-camera report about the stories the network is pursuing that day, posted online by mid-morning.

ABC’s World News

abcnews.go.com/WNT/

* Webcast and podcast: Charles Gibson anchors an early version of the broadcast, which includes a heavy emphasis on tech stories, posted online by 1:30 p.m. and available for download through iTunes.

* Blog: ABC correspondents and producers file posts about the day’s top stories on “The World Newser.”

CBS Evening News

www.cbsnews.com

* Internet simulcast: Beginning tonight, the newscast can be watched live online, and then accessed on-demand. Viewers will be asked to register to view the simulcast at the same time it airs in their time zone.

* Blog: Anchor Katie Couric and CBS correspondents will contribute to “Couric & Company,” a rundown of the day’s news that will include opportunities for online questions from viewers.

* Vlog: Couric will give a brief, on-camera rundown of the stories being considered for that evening’s broadcast in a daily afternoon video clip.

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matea.gold@latimes.com