Katie Couric

THE ASCENSION OF KATIE Couric to the anchor desk at CBS on Tuesday and of Meredith Vieira to her place on the Today show gives us a prime-time look at the status of women in the workplace. When it comes to women, it is still about looks, age and clothes. The Wall Street Journal picked over Couric's wardrobe as if it were hanging in a secondhand shop. And women's magazine writers keep making the point that Vieira looks great without makeup and doesn't care a fig about what she wears. Television reporters asked ABC's Charlie Gibson about his anchor-chair clothing choices as a joke because they had asked Couric about hers.

Katie Couric won't be altering her look. She won't be going off to war merely to read the news while "standing somewhere in a flak jacket." And most of all, she isn't expecting any big "surge" in ratings for CBS Evening News With Katie Couric this fall. As the network's promotional blitz for its new $60 million anchorwoman kicks into high gear, Couric, who will debut in her new role Sept. 5, yesterday launched a counter-campaign of sorts, ratcheting down expectations and softening the drumbeat of hype.

In his first television interview since leaving CBS News abruptly last month after working there for 44 years, Dan Rather said last night that he had not ruled out suing the network. "I can't say that I never thought about that," Rather told CNN's Larry King in a live broadcast in which he, nevertheless, made clear that he was moving on with his career and spent little time looking backward. But he conceded that the manner of his parting had been "painful." Rather, 74, announced June 20 that he was leaving the network after it became clear, he said, that CBS had no further use for him. His departure came 15 months after he stepped down as anchor of the CBS Evening News in the aftermath of a controversy over the authenticity of documents used in a story about President Bush's military career.

The View lost some of its star power yesterday, and as a result, fans of the popular ABC talk show will be denied the chance to see one of the more promising celebrity showdowns of the fall. Star Jones Reynolds, who has been with the morning program since its debut in 1997, told viewers yesterday that she will be leaving the show next month. While she was purposefully vague in her on-air remarks and a follow-up statement issued through a publicist, it appears that, rather than quitting the show, she was fired by executive producer Barbara Walters.

ARLINGTON, VA. -- Emulating the "listening tour" of Hillary Rodham Clinton when she first ran for the Senate, the newly minted anchor of the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric, will soon embark on a listening tour of her own. Executive producer Rome Hartman says, "It's an attempt to hear from regular folks on a whole broad range of things that help us make decisions on how we can better serve our viewers." The general manager of the CBS affiliate in Denver, Walt DeHaven, said in a press release that when Ms. Couric visits his city, "she intends to meet a diverse cross-section so that she can really get to the heart of the community."

That sure was a stirring farewell to Mother Teresa on the Today show yesterday, although it got to be a bit much after a while, didn't it? What's that? You say that wasn't a tribute to Calcutta's beloved "saint of the gutters"? The three hours of mass veneration, the weepy goodbye videos from viewers who said she changed their lives, the gooey testimonials from adoring co-workers, the "We'll Miss You!" signs held aloft by the worshipful crowds shoe-horned into Rockefeller Plaza, the hugs, the kisses, the tears - you say all that was for who?

Johnny Carson had Bette Midler singing to him during his farewell week on NBC's Tonight show in 1992, but tomorrow, Katie Couric will have Tony Bennett and the entire cast of a Broadway show. "We're going to throw her a nice party on May 31st, and the viewers are invited - they should all participate," Jim Bell, executive producer of Today, said in a telephone interview last week. End of an era Katie Couric's last Today show airs at 7 a.m. tomorrow on WBAL (Channel 11).

"They say, Katie, you're like a flame / into our lives you came." -- lyric from Stone Phillips' "Goodbye to Katie" TODAY / / 7 a.m. weekdays / / Katie Couric's final day on the show is Wednesday / / WBAL (Channel 11) Couric at a glance Born: Jan. 7, 1957 Hometown: Arlington, Va. Education: Bachelor's degree, University of Virginia Awards: Peabody Joined "Today" as co-anchor: April 4, 1991 Most memorable story: Couric had a colonoscopy on TV on March 6, 2000, to heighten awareness of the procedure Family: Two daughters.

They are going to make me turn in my membership card in the feminist movement for this, but I wish Katie Couric hadn't taken the CBS Evening News job for the same reason I hope Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't run for president. I don't think it is going to go well, and that means another notch in the "loss" column for women. This goes against all the "Try, even if you fail," chatter that I send my daughter's way. But I just can't bear any "I told you so" guff from the guys if and when Katie crashes and burns like Barbara Walters, Sally Quinn and Connie Chung did when they made the same kind of professional leap.

As expected, NBC moved swiftly yesterday to fill the void left by Katie Couric's defection to CBS with Meredith Vieira as co-host of Today. Vieira, who will join Matt Lauer at the anchor desk in September, held back tears yesterday as she announced her decision to join TV's top-rated morning show on ABC's The View, where she has served as one of five co-anchors since its debut in 1997. "I know that part of their reasoning [at NBC] for offering me this job is that I have 20 years of news [experience]