TV: Sawyer’s Smart Start

I thought Diane Sawyer got off to a good start on Monday night. Then I missed the evening news last night because I was out.
Which is pretty much the story of the evening news.
It’s conventional wisdom, especially among hardworking and busy New Yorkers: nobody is home to watch the news at 6:30 evening news shows. I think in this case conventional wisdom is right. And even in the age of DVR-ing everything, even a newshound like me only rarely would record an evening news show. Cause there’s another one rolling around every few minutes.
So Sawyer’s prize, the evening news anchor slot, is more a ceremonial victory than a tangible one. She may have had more media power had she stayed in place on “Good Morning America.” But Sawyer and I are both old enough—especially this week, since her birthday was yesterday and mine is today—to remember the era when the evening anchor was the face of the network. And he still is. Or, more accurately and more excitingly, she is.
Anyway, Sawyer did a good job. Mostly by being the anti-Katie. I’m not a Couric-basher and think she was unfairly criticized for about a year after she landed at the “CBS Evening News,” but Sawyer seems to have learned the lessons of the Couric debut. Sawyer did not try to reinvent the evening news program, whose audience probably is not up for that anyway. Instead, she dived into the dullness—giving us a surprisingly well-edited newscast that bravely began with a lengthy (by TV standards) health care report. That included a smart series of answers to questions that audience members had sent in. And Sawyer’s news-reading style was even livelier than the news deserved.
I read a mean piece in the Post by Kyle Smith about how Sawyer’s show was full of old news. But I don’t think so. I think the program was professional and almost shockingly smart. Well-paced. I’d give Sawyer high marks, whether anybody is actually watching or not. Maybe somebody will.