An Hour Long Evening Newscast? Not Happening

Katie Couric says everywhere she went people were saying they wanted the network newscasts to be one hour long. Uh-huh. Sometimes people tell you what they THINK they should want, rather than what they really want. Surely if they wanted more news they'd be watching the half hour broadcast in higher numbers. She smartly shot down expectations of that -- local stations make bucket loads of money from syndicated shows like "Entertainment Tonight" and "Wheel of Fortune" that air after the evening news and before primetime. The networks will NEVER get their hands on any of that real estate from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. But then she says -- crazily -- that someday a network will air an hour long newscast in prime time. Sure, the Brits do that. We never will. Finally, if she can joke about looking for a signature sign-off ("Peace out, homies" was her suggestion) then why is she so uptight about people wondering what she'll wear? It's no more superficial than questions about the set. And when Dan Rather started wearing sweaters, that made headlines, so it's not just a girl thing.