Katie Scores



(image via drudgereport)

Though not the buxom "Naked News" that Master of the Universe Les Moonves threatened us with, Katie trounced the competition. Whether or not Katie can hold onto the commanding lead is up in the air, but she scored big time on her debut, or, as DrudgiePoo writes in all caps:

"9.1 RATING/17 SHARE FOR FIRST COURIC 'EVENING NEWS' IN OVERNIGHTS... CBS BROADCAST EASILY TOPS ABC 'WORLD NEWS' 5.7/11 AND NBC 'NIGHTLY' 5.3/10... MORE... COURIC SCORED 7.7/14 IN NYC; 5.8/11 L.A.; 4.9/11 CHICAGO [SECOND PLACE BEHIND ABC'S 8.8/19]; 9.8./16 IN PHILLY [SECOND PLACE BEHIND ABC'S 11.6/19]; 8.4/16 BOSTON; 4.8/13 SAN FRAN; 7.2/15 DALLAS... MORE..."

What do we make of this? Well, Couric got the equivalent of millions of dollars worth of free advertising in the media, so we can't make too much of it. Will -- as the Elder brother of the New York media establishment Kurt Andersen framed it -- authenticity win over gravitas.

Competence -- theme no doubt Hillary Clinton will be using in her 2008 Presidential campaign came up, from, of all places, Alessandra Stanley. Stanley, you'll remember, so brutally spanked Katie on her shapely kneecaps that for the rest of her tenure at Today, we thought she was paraplegic.

We'll keep you informed of developments in this story.