"I'm really focused on work and trying to tune the other stuff out, because it could potentially drive you absolutely out of your mind."

Katie Couric is in preparations for her role as the first female solo news anchor of a major network. Before she's even said her first Good Evening, she's been scrutinized nearly to death. She has said she wants to give a different presentation to the news, so it will be interesting to see what impact she has.

After conducting town meetings in a half-dozen cities last month, Couric concluded that "people are hungry" for more positive stories. She is, for example, working on a piece about an Alexandria foundation that teaches juvenile delinquents how to build boats and helps them get high school equivalency degrees.

"Sometimes when you watch the evening news, it's all gloom and doom -- and some of it has to be, because the world is a complicated and pretty scary place right now," says Couric, 49. "But there has to be a place for more hopeful stories."

But, she adds, "it's not going to be smiley-face happy news." (WaPo)

Will you watch her on September 5? Do you even care? In the age of the Internet and the multiple cable news channels, does anyone watch The Big Three at 6:30/5:30 anymore?