The buzz in the world of national news this week is that Rick Kaplan was hired to oversee the CBS Evening News, and rumor has it (a la The Drudge Report) that anchor Katie Couric wasn't consulted.

In one of my more ignominious blog predictions, I do believe I said the news world should watch out for Couric. After five days of her on-air existence, I had apparently decided to drink the Kool-Aid.

Mind you, I had a good track record. Months before, I had predicted in front of my colleagues in our morning editorial meeting that I didn't think Bob Woodruff and Liz Vargas would last a year at the helm of World News Tonight.

I was right, although it was really brought about by a near tragedy, referring of course to Bob's close call in Iraq. Nevertheless, theirs was a failed experiment, not so much because of him but because of her. Fortunately for ABC News, she got pregnant, which gave execs the bright idea to move Charlie Gibson into her spot.

Smart move, a good long-term move if Gibson is interested long-term.

Amid reports that NBC News' Brian Williams has hemorrhaged viewers over the past year and amid rumors that Katie only has seven total viewers left, news department executives at the major networks are pondering the future not only of their anchors but also of their broadcasts.

I'm here to help.

Having worked in television -- well, the digital portion of the business -- for the past two years, I've learned what makes a good newscast visually and contentually. I don't want to brag too much about the station where I work because I don't think it's too wise to make a direct association between my blog and the newsroom because there is none.

However, let's just say that while watching Idol the other night, I was replaying intro shots where Ryan Seacrest would walk down the stairs or how the cameras would move around and comparing it to how we decide such things at work. Not me, I don't decide these things, but I keep my ear to the ground in hopes of learning a little something.

Brian Williams has nothing to fear I don't think, at least not yet. However, Kaplan is going to be faced with Katie's future, I think, before the year is out. I think he'll be forced to buy out her contract and send her on the merry road back to entertainment-based television.

CBS fired its evening news executive producer, which prompted one of my colleagues to note, "That's the way it usually works. The talent stinks, so they fire the EP," a comment obviously filled with playful sarcasm. After just two weeks at the helm of CBS' Evening News, Couric was said to have paid for her own salary in the form of advertising won by Madison Avenue execs.

At some point, her continued employment at the helm of a once-respected newscast could likely bankrupt them long-term in terms of credibility. In an industry, at the network level, that is just dying at every fiber, network newscasts desperately need credibility. When ABC News serendipitously brought Charlie into the lead anchor role, its newscast benefitted with a much-needed boost.

Network news viewers, I suspect, like folks anchoring the news who have been in the trenches. Weathered souls who remind them of a day when the Ed Murrows of the world reigned, offering us the news with limited analysis and commentary but giving viewers subtle perspective.

For example, even though he was crazy as a loon at times, Dan Rather had covered wars in other countries, hurricanes at the peak of the storm and politics from the convention floor. As an anchor, Rather was able to connect with viewers in part because they knew that he knew first-hand about many of the things he was reporting.

To that end, I think news viewers respect reporters, reporters turned anchors if you will. Hosting the "Today" show doesn't cut it. Hosting ABC News "Primetime" likely doesn't either.

Months before Katie took the helm at CBS, Bob Schieffer had really started to build an audience. He's old school, a straight-talking Texan with so many skins under his belt that viewers automatically respected him for what he had done even if they didn't care for the on-air product.

Katie experimented with format, opting for in-depth pieces at first, including a much-maligned segment in which celebs were allowed to offer 2 minutes worth of "free speech." They then opted for more of a breaking-news format, a decision that I don't believe put the proper focus on the problem.

Her.

She was a gimmick.

My initial thought was that it was a gimmick that could jump-start CBS' news division. I'm not sure why, but for two weeks, I was right.

Still, I recall telling a colleague that, if it had been up to me, I would have doled out the big bucks to lure Anderson Cooper over from CNN. In retrospect, it would have been another boneheaded call on my part.

What Rick Kaplan's first order of business should be, presuming he has the authority as the new EP, is to fire Katie and reinstate Bob Schieffer as the permanent anchor for the CBS Evening News.

If he doesn't want the gig, I'd look to guys with gray hair, wrinkles and a ton of reporting experience. While I don't intend this to be a sexist remark, it is by definition: I don't suspect there are too many female anchors who could revive a network news broadcast, only because the audience demographic is way more "traditional" and skewers older.

The one who comes to mind who could is Diane Sawyer, who is experienced, powerful, respected, classy and -- hopefully -- going nowhere outside of ABC.

Truth is, if Schieffer didn't want the gig, I'm not sure what Kaplan should do. At ABC, the producers of "Nightline" completely revamped the format of the show when Ted Koppel left, and it's paid dividends both in terms of audience share and critically.

It's actually a better albeit lighter program now that Ted's gone.

That doesn't please the hardcore news geek, but that person has a plethora of choices on cable and online. This is where Kaplan could do something innovative and differentiate his newscast by making it significantly lighter.

Cover the breaking news of the day that people missed. The police chases. The school lockdowns. The bomb threats. The planes with landing gear that won't come down. The stuff that mesmerizes those of us who get to watch the news all day.

While there is a place for hard news, frankly, ABC and NBC are killing CBS at that game. The only chance the boys at black rock have of doing something innovative and, in turn, dominating those 30 minutes once again is to invoke a little "creative destruction."

Reinvent the evening news.

Not just the host. Not just the style of news presentation. They should reinvent the whole damned thing and turn it into 30 minutes that isn't so much informative as it is appointment television.

My gut hunch is that Kaplan will not nearly be so daring or innovative.