Devoted to show business and the entertainment industry

Commenting on the plight and expectations concerning Katie Couric and her inability at this time to build a large audience, former CBS (CBS-A) News president Andrew Heyward said that he doesn't believe she will be going anywhere soon.

In Heyward's estimation, Couric and the changes made in replacing the popular Bob Schieffer probably happened too fast, and the audience that had followed Schieffer gravitated to Charlie Gibson, who is now the leading news anchor in the U.S.

"People who liked Bob Schieffer said, 'She's not like Bob Schieffer. Who's more like Bob Schieffer? Charlie Gibson is.' So they switched," said Heyward.

He added that even though he feels the changes were too quick and created some of the backlash as the studio look and feel was probably too drastic over a short period of time.

There was also the feel of Couric leading an entourage, which created resentment among some of the staff.

With the overall audience still decreasing because more people are consuming their news on the Internet, the network did need to try something different. It should be given more time to see if it can find its own unique audience and see if Couric can start to resonate with more viewers.

Hopefully they'll continue on to see how it shakes out. To simply bring back someone in the mold of Bob Schieffer won't do anything to make a big difference. With the large networks there is only so many viewers willing to watch news in that way anymore. It won't matter who sits in the seat from that way of looking at it.

If Couric is able to gain some headway, she has the potential to carry an audience directed toward who she uniquely is. That's the real issue that is at stake, not changing the minds of people on how to consume media.