Anchor Away

In the "cool" medium of television, Dan Rather has always been considered a "hot" presence. Last week, however, Rather's colleagues at CBS were debating whether their intense, somewhat melodramatic anchor had grown a few degrees too hot after he angrily walked off the set of the CBS Evening News, leaving the network with a blank screen.

In Miami to report the arrival of Pope John Paul II, Rather became upset after learning that the network's coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament might cut into that night's 6:30 newscast. He called CBS News President Howard Stringer and told him that if the Evening News did not begin on schedule, CBS Sports should fill the remaining time until the second, and final, edition of the news began at 7. When the semifinal match between Steffi Graf and Lori McNeil was still on the network at 6:30, Rather unclipped his microphone and left the set to call Stringer again. Moments later the match ended, and the network switched from New York to Miami for Rather's show. For six frantic minutes, more than 100 CBS stations that carry the 6:30 broadcast scrambled to fill the time until Rather could be located and hustled back to his desk.

CBS denied reports that Rather had to be cajoled into returning to the set. "I would never even think of deliberately allowing the network to go to black," he said. Although the managers of several CBS affiliates criticized Rather for leaving his anchor chair, CBS Chief Executive Officer Laurence Tisch publicly sympathized with Rather, saying it was "human nature" for him to be perturbed. Nonetheless, Tisch reportedly was furious with Rather, and the two had a heated exchange. A possible casualty: Executive Producer Tom Bettag, who might be replaced with someone who can deal more firmly with Rather.

The disappearing act fueled fresh speculation about whether the ratings game was taking a toll on Rather. Once the top-ranked network anchor, Rather spent most of the summer stuck in third place, behind NBC's Tom Brokaw and ABC's Peter Jennings. But Rather may soon have reason to smile again: in trial runs of the new "people meter" rating system, which made its official debut last week, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather finished in first place. No details, however, about how those six minutes of CBS Evening News Without Dan Rather fared.