The Taliban are making a comeback in Afghanistan. Chevron discovered a massive oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. And -- by the way -- Katie Couric anchored the news.

Unless you've been living in a cave with Osama Bin Laden, you probably knew that Couric, formerly the star of NBC's morning show Today, was making the big move to the anchor chair at CBS Evening News -- the first solo female anchor on a network evening newscast.

The media had a field day. Couric appeared everywhere, including local CBS affiliate Channel 12, which had anchors Karen Adams and Steve Aveson do an interview with Couric that ran on last night's 6 o'clock newscast.

Commentators wondered in print what Couric would wear. (White jacket over a black top.)

Would she be too perky? (No.)

Would she radically change the format? (Not so far.)

And Couric did a fairly graceful job of acknowledging her heavily hyped debut without dwelling on it.

"I'm very happy to be with you tonight," she said in the opening moments of the newscast.

At the end, saying she couldn't decide on a proper signoff, she played some famous ones from past anchors, ranging from Walter Cronkite to The Mary Tyler Moore Show's fictional Ted Baxter. Then she asked listeners to help her find a proper farewell.

OK, maybe that was a tad cute.

Working on a gleaming, curvey new set, Couric opened the news with a Lara Logan story on the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, then a Jim Axelrod report about President Bush talking tough on terror.

Couric interviewed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and promoted her upcoming interview with President Bush.

CBS has added a few new wrinkles to the CBS Evening News, among them a feature called "Free Speech" that allows Americans -- some famous, some not -- to sound off on issues.

Last night, the speaker was documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) who compared overheated political rhetoric on TV to professional wrestling and said Americans "weren't buying into the smackdown hype."

There was also a segment called "Snapshots" that showed the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, which had snagged a picture of little Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Great publicity for Vanity Fair, but it hardly seemed necessary for CBS.

Couric's arrival at CBS completes an anchor turnover at all three major networks, with Brian Williams now at NBC and Charles Gibson at ABC.

The three evening network newscasts have an audience of 25 million people, more than any other news source. But that's down from 37 million in 1991-1992. What's more, it's an older audience, with an average age of about 60.

CBS, along with its competition, is trying to beef up its Internet presence to attract new viewers.

The evening newscast is being streamed live on the Web site, www.cbsnews.com., which also offers a Couric video notebook, a "first look" at the next newscast, and her online journal, or blog. (ABC and NBC also have blogs on their Web sites.)

In her notebook for yesterday, Couric compared starting on the CBS newscast to the first day of school. Of course, no one gets a reported $15 million a year to go to school.

Preliminary ratings for tonight's newscasts weren't available last night, although it's a safe bet that a large audience tuned in to sample Couric.

But we like to judge our anchors over the long haul, and to see how they do when a big news event keeps them behind the anchor desk for many hours at a stretch.

But for openers, Couric appeared competent and reasonably comfortable, and you can't ask for much more than that.

asmith@projo.com / (401) 277-7262

Your Turn: Rate Katie Couric's debut as CBS Evening News anchor

http://www.projo.com/perl/common/surveys/display_full.pl?poll_id=6599&site=projo&vaction=voting&thissite=projo