Ed Bark

The CBS Evening News of tomorrow turned out to be more than a little like Today when Katie Couric took over Tuesday night.

Both serious and seriously gimmicky, it may well have sent some hardened purists into cardiac arrest. But purists won't be the jurists. CBS is hoping to rally a somewhat younger crowd around Ms. Couric with a dinner-hour presentation that might just as well be called the CBSNews.com Evening News.

"Hi, everyone," she began. "I'm very happy to be with you tonight."

AP / CBS

Katie Couric introduces the first story of the broadcast in this video frame grab.

Web-site references were plentiful on opening night. Then Ms. Couric sealed the deal by challenging viewers to propose some parting words for her via the Internet.

"If you have a bright idea for a great signoff, log on to our Web site at cbsnews.com and tell me," Ms. Couric urged. "I know we'll have a lot of fun reading them. And who knows, maybe one will actually stick."

Well, she asked for it. And one can only imagine the zeal with which some of Ms. Couric's detractors will stick it to her in the coming days. Despoiled Dan Rather perhaps will be one of them. His much-lampooned, short-lived "Courage" signoff was replayed during a montage of previous anchor goodbyes. It immediately preceded the nightly not-so-deep thoughts of pompous fake anchors Ted Baxter and Ron Burgundy.

Mr. Rather is still an easy target as he prepares to go to work for Mark Cuban's HDNet this fall. But really, did he have to be reduced to a punch line on a newscast that he helmed for 24 years before "Memo-gate" took him out?

Ms. Couric, wearing a black dress and white jacket, immediately detoured from the correspondents-up-front presentation favored by predecessor Bob Schieffer. She, not they, introduced the newscast's featured reports. And there was no post-story Q&A between Ms. Couric and steady, heady reporters such as Jim Axelrod, Anthony Mason and Lara Logan, who had an eye-opening first-hand look at Afghanistan's still formidable Taliban terrorists.

The anchor did interview ubiquitous international expert Thomas Friedman of The New York Times in a taped segment that had them sitting across from each other in easy chairs. As the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 nears, "Are we safer now than we were?" Ms. Couric asked him. "What do you think?"

Yes and no, Mr. Friedman in essence answered.

The Evening News also unveiled its nightly "Free Speech" segment, which is intended to let a wide variety of Americans say their piece without interruption. Morgan Spurlock of FX's 30 Days series took the first crack. He complained that today's news has little use for the middle-ground opinions that characterize most of the country.

"We're not a nation divided at all," Mr. Spurlock contended. "We're just a country that's buying into the Smackdown! hype."

CBS illustrated his comments with dated footage of wrestler Hulk Hogan in full pose. Ms. Couric added that viewers are "going to hear a lot of different opinions," including those of Rush Limbaugh on Thursday's program.

Later, another new segment called "Snap Shots!" began with vintage baby pictures of Prince Charles before segueing to an "exclusive" first look at a Vanity Fair magazine cover sporting Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their baby daughter, Suri.

That seemed awfully Today-ish, if not downright Entertainment Tonight-ish. Even so, the Evening News still has the same old-skewing commercials for products such as Vytorin (for high cholesterol), Avodart (to combat frequent urination) and Caduet (for both high cholesterol and blood pressure).

For Ms. Couric at least, the pressure finally is off at least a bit. She looked relieved to make it through Tuesday's history-making debut, sitting on the edge of her anchor desk and smiling broadly while talking soundlessly to an unseen staffer.

Rival Brian Williams, her old NBC colleague, took brief note at the end of his network's Nightly News. He wished Ms. Couric "good luck, in limited amounts."

Charles Gibson made no mention of his new competitor on ABC's World News.

Both programs almost assuredly were outdrawn Tuesday by Ms. Couric's first outing. If not, that's a major disaster for the otherwise third-place CBS, which is expecting big things from its newest, biggest news star.

"Thank you so much for watching," Ms. Couric said in lieu of a snappy signoff. "And I hope to see you tomorrow night."

Everyone at CBS News, and CBSNews.com, is banking on it.