• July 17, 2006 | 6 a.m. PT

Warning: Possible spoilers for the new 'CSI' season ahead

Sunday at the TV Critics' Association press conference in Pasadena, CBS wrapped up its presentations. Saturday focused on new shows; Sunday on old standbys and some familiar faces on new ventures. Use these links to skip right to the topics in which you're interested.

Sunday:

• K-K-K-Katie: Couric packs the house
• Munching mini-burgers with Rachael Ray
• Digging up dirt on 'CSI'

Saturday:

K-K-K-Katie

Lots of celebrities join the journalists at the TV Critics' Association summer press tour. Just last night I was discussing changes in "Close to Home" with Jennifer Finnigan, talking about ways to beat the Pasadena heat with Thom Barry of "Cold Case," and semi-stalking Charlie Sheen. But the biggest star to grace the firmament here all week arrived this morning: The house was packed for Katie Couric.

In case you've been trapped in the "Lost" hatch for the last six months, Couric is the former "Today" show co-host who will soon be the first woman to be the sole anchor on an American evening news broadcast when she takes over the CBS Evening News. She and CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus showed up to discuss what viewers should expect when Couric takes the anchor chair on Sept. 5.

Couric and McManus both repeatedly stated that Couric’s NBC-CBS transition, which received a metric ton of press coverage recently, was something they felt was of more interest to the media than to average Americans. Couric discussed her town hall forums, in which she traveled the nation meeting viewers and discussing what they wanted to see in a newscast. On the Minneapolis stop, one blogger had his pen confiscated so he couldn’t take notes on the meeting.

Couric did address that issue when asked about it, saying “it was my decision to exclude reporters,” and that she didn’t want the people participating to be used “as some kind of promotional device.” The questioner pointed out that if the meetings should have been referred to as focus groups instead of town meetings, if the press were not to be allowed to report on them.

She also said that news viewers want “more perspective … some more historical background.” Viewers told her they found it disconcerting that the country was so polarized and didn’t feel the nation was as split as media reports would make it seem. The news, it was said, was “too depressing.” Couric said that while “we can’t sugarcoat what’s going on in the world,” newscasters could perhaps be “more solution-oriented.”

Couric said when she discussed being the first woman to be the sole anchor of a major nightly newscast, she discussed it with her two daughters. Ten-year-old Caroline, she said “was channeling Helen Reddy” as she encouraged her mother to take the job. She is Couric, hear her roar.

More from the Couric press conference:

• If her anchor role kicked in today, Couric said, she would want to be in the Middle East covering the crisis there.
• When asked how long before an African-American was solo anchor of a major newscast, Couric praised the work of the late Max Robinson at ABC as well as her former “Today” co-worker Bryant Gumbel, and McManus mentioned CBS’ own Russ Mitchell as well as NBC’s Lester Holt. No one estimated a date, however, when an African-American might take that role.
• While McManus discouraged interest in the new Evening News set being built for Couric, saying he hoped the emphasis would remain on the news, he also divulged that “it’s not going to be wildly modernistic or look like a spaceship.” Couric may stand at some times, he revealed.
• Couric wouldn’t comment on Dan Rather’s controversial and messy departure from CBS, but McManus said he tried to handle the departure “in a respectful and an honest way” and was honest with the longtime anchor. The Associated Press has reported that Rather has said he was offered a new contract with no assignments. McManus said the two parted as friends and “I have nothing but warm thoughts about Dan.”