Back on The March at CBS News

By Richard Zoglin

Even Aaron Altman, the hapless network correspondent in Broadcast News, could not have imagined a worse nightmare than the one that befell CBS on Sept. 11. The news division had already weathered a truly awful year of layoffs, dissension and drooping ratings. Then, on that memorable Friday, network technicians switched to a studio in Miami for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, only to find an anchor chair without Dan Rather. He had left the set minutes before, miffed that coverage of a U.S. Open tennis match was running over. The result was an unprecedented six minutes of empty air time. The black screen was a humiliating symbol for TV's most troubled news division. But it turns out to have marked a nadir followed by a swift and surprising turnaround.

Just four months later, activity and spirits at CBS News are higher than they have been since Laurence Tisch took control of the company 16 months ago. Rather's disappearing act was followed almost immediately by an upsurge in the Evening News ratings, courtesy of a September change in measuring the audience. In late November the low-rated Morning Program, an empty-calorie confection that replaced the CBS Morning News, was canceled after 10 1/2 months, and its time period was given back to the news division. Next week the network will introduce an ambitious new documentary series, 48 Hours. Added to 60 Minutes and West 57th, that will give CBS three full hours of news programming in prime time -- more than any other network present or past.

"We have gone from defense to offense," says David Corvo, executive producer of the new CBS This Morning, "from reductions to production." The manic rebound from depression has its ironies: after laying off 230 news staffers last year, the network has now added more than 100 to handle the increased programming. Cynical insiders note that the departed have been replaced by less expensive newcomers: "Producerettes, we call them," says one survivor. Tisch sees the renewed signs of life as proof that his cost cutting was justified. "It was painful," he says, "but we've come out stronger for it."

Perhaps so. 48 Hours, which will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST, could be the most innovative prime-time news series since 60 Minutes debuted in 1968. The show will focus on a single subject each week, with all shooting done in a two-day period and much of it presented in raw chunks with minimum narration. For an upcoming hour on the city of Miami, for example, CBS cameras follow, among others, a Latin real estate agent tooling around town in his limousine and drug agents fruitlessly combing a suspected smuggler's boat. "The aim," says Executive Producer Andrew Heyward, "is to let the viewer experience the story firsthand as it unfolds, the way reporters do."

Other segments in preparation include looks at a big-city airport (Denver's Stapleton) and a hospital (Dallas' Parkland Memorial). But the producers intend to be flexible enough to switch at the last minute from a scheduled show to one covering a major breaking story. With Rather as anchor and a full- time staff of 48 (no fooling), 48 Hours has already given the whole news staff an "adrenaline surge," says News President Howard Stringer.

While 48 Hours seeks to break new ground, CBS This Morning is merely trying to recapture lost territory. After the embarrassing Morning Program, the new show has been a welcome addition just by looking normal. Though it is still fishing for its personality, Co-Anchors Kathleen Sullivan and Harry Smith are smooth and genuine (he more than she). The news content is relatively high, the tone comfortably mellow and the audience slightly larger. The chief problem: luring star-caliber guests away from the more popular Today and Good Morning America.

The CBS Evening News, meanwhile, is enjoying its ratings windfall. Last summer TV's former No. 1 newscast fell to an ignominious third place. Then the A.C. Nielsen Co. converted to its new people-meter system (in which participants punch buttons rather than fill out diaries to record their viewing), and the program jumped back up to No. 1. Rather, who on the air showed the stress of troubled times, appears reinvigorated and relaxed, and the show has an attractive new set and swelling theme music. In an effort to give the newscast a further boost, correspondents from 60 Minutes will start showing up for weekly stints as analysts; Mike Wallace is set for this week.

Despite the latest happy twist in CBS News' running soap opera, staffers remain wary. "The general mood is up," reports one producer, "but there is a glimmer of concern as to how sincere this all is, or how permanent." Though the jazzy magazine program West 57th has survived its harshest critics and done some solid journalism, its ratings on Saturday night remain low. 48 Hours will have a similarly tough job winning viewers in its difficult Tuesday slot. CBS, in a tight race with ABC for second place in the prime-time ratings, will find it hard to stick with the shows if no one tunes in.

But news hours cost only $500,000 or so, less than 60% of a typical entertainment show. And in the increasingly bruising TV environment, network executives are anxious to stress what they believe cable and other competitors cannot match -- CBS's news prowess. "We just can't think of every program in terms of dollars and cents," says Tisch. "Hit programs come and go, but CBS News is an institution that I hope is going to be here for the next 100 years." Aaron Altman -- or Edward R. Murrow -- could hardly quarrel with that.

With reporting by Naushad S. Mehta/New York