SCHIEFFER CALLS FOR COURIC TO REPLACE HIM

CBS Evening News"temporary" anchor Bob Schieffer says that he’s hoping he’ll be replaced by NBC’s Todayshow co-host, Katie Couric. In an interview with today’s (Tuesday) Philadelphia Inquirer,Schieffer called Couric “a big-time journalist,” adding, “I’m hoping we can get her.” Couric herself continues to maintain that she has made no decision about accepting the offer from CBS chief Les Moonves to anchor the network’s nightly newscast. But Schieffer, who has anchored the newscast since last March, when Dan Rather was forced out, insisted that Couric would make an ideal permanent anchor. “She’s a great interviewer, people know who she is, and she has enormous credibility. People believe her. They take her seriously. She’s also a very nice person to have around this place. She would make us a better news department,” he told the Inquirer.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

LOUSY FOOTBALL MATCH; TERRIFIC RATINGS

The match-up of two NFL teams with losing records may not pull big ratings, but ABC’s Monday Night Football telecast of the Atlanta Falcons/New Orleans Saints game nevertheless drew the biggest audience of the night and gave the network a win both in total viewers and adults 18-49. MNF averaged a 9.1 rating and a 14 share for the night. Earlier, ABC’s Wife Swappulled a 7.1/11, to win the 8:00 p.m. hour. CBS was a close second during the first two hours of primetime and came out slightly ahead at 10:00 p.m. with a rerun of CSI: Miami. NBC remained well behind in third place. An NBC variety special, Elton John: The Red Piano, posted only a 5.6/9.

“FAMILY FRIENDLY” BASIC CABLE PACKAGES COMING, SAYS NY TIMES

In an apparent effort to address complaints that cable subscribers are being forced to purchase cable network packages that include what some regard as indecent programming, the cable companies are planning to introduce packages of “family-friendly” channels beginning early next year. Today’s (Tuesday) New York Timesdescribed the move as “the latest effort by cable companies to head off pending legislation that might obligate them to … sell channels to consumers on an à la carte basis.” However the conservative Parents Television Council, whose members have been most active in filing complaints with the FCC over objectionable programming, denounced the plan. Its president, L. Brent Bozell, said that having the industry determine what is family friendly would be like “the fox guarding the henhouse.”

CHRIS WALLACE SAYS HIS FATHER, MIKE, HAS “LOST IT”

Only days after appearing on NBC’s Datelineand confessing that one of his greatest regrets was not being closer to his children when they were growing up, Mike Wallace has had his sanity publicly questioned by his son, Fox News correspondent Chris Wallace. All had seemed to be well between them last week, when the younger Wallace interviewed the elder, as part of his father’s promotion of his new book, Between You and Me. But Monday, he told Boston talk-show host Howie Carr, “He’s lost it, the man has lost it. What can I say?” when asked about comments that the elder Wallace made last week in an interview with the Boston Globe, in which he questioned George Bush’s qualifications to be president. Chris Wallace said that “things have set in” with his father and that the family plans to have a “competency hearing” for him soon. The younger Wallace, who had previously stated that the politics of Fox News channel’s executives would not influence him, had even harsher words for Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, calling him a “Tokyo Rose” for suggesting that the war in Iraq is unwinnable.

CBS AND UPN – ON YOUR CELL PHONE

Amp’d Mobile, which says it aims to provide unique entertainment programming to users of video cell phones, targeting especially the youth market, said Monday that it had signed an exclusive deal with CBS and UPN that will enable it to offer clips and behind-the-scenes content from CBS’s CSI:NY, Numb3rs, The King of Queens,and Late Night with Dave Letterman as wells as UPN’s America’s Next Top Model, Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends.Amp’d plans to launch its service later this month.

STUDY: CABLE CUSTOMERS WITH VOD STOP RENTING AND BUYING MOVIES

Once most TV viewers are able to view movies and other special programming on demand, they no longer rent or buy DVDs. That is the conclusion of a study conducted by OTX Research for Starz Entertainment Group, which offers its subscribers 750 movies a month that they can watch on demand over cable. Results of the study show that 72 percent of Starz users rent fewer DVDs and 60 percent buy fewer DVDs. The study was reported by