Diane Sawyer Outshines Katie Couric

Similarities between Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric abound, but the new ABC anchor is already beating her CBS counterpart. “Sawyer may be able to succeed where Couric hasn’t quite,” writes Los Angeles Times TV critic Mary McNamara, “blending the undeniable if troubling trend toward emo-journalism while still commanding the gravitas necessary for a serious news organization.”

Couric and Sawyer are both supposed to bring that emotional morning talk show touch to the evening news. “A good TV anchor nowadays is like a high-powered hostess, drawing conversation from some well informed but possibly shy guest,” writes McNamara. Sawyer has an advantage because she's “always been the Katharine Hepburn of the newsroom, classy in white collared shirts, radiating a passionate but still clearly intellectual concern for what is happening in the world around her."