CBS / Landov
After facing harsh critics and low ratings for two years, Katie Couric's term as anchor of the CBS Evening News actually appears on an upswing. "I was beginning to think only my parents and my brother were watching," Couric told the Washington Post. She recently scored a coup—Chesley Sullenburger, the hero pilot of the downed US Airways flight, will have his first sit-down interview with her on Feb. 8. Tom Shales writes that perhaps her returning popularity is due to her "warmer, more benevolent presence than her two competitors," including NBC's Brian Williams and Charles Gibson at ABC, and the ratings results are noticeable, if not small. Her program has risen 5 percent in the ratings over the past year. Couric added, "I just put on blinders and do my job and try not to let [the press] bother me."