Katie Couric ... and oh yeah, the news

She was introduced by the voice of Walter Cronkite. And there was Katie Couric, standing to introduce the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” … just as Brian Williams stands to deliver the “NBC Nightly News.” Curvy new graphics churned behind her … kind of like they do on Fox News Channel.

Well, borrow from the best, right?

Nowhere was that more evident Tuesday than in the appearance of Couric, smartly dressed and reminiscent of the chatty star of TV’s No. 1-rated morning show as she introduced herself to viewers with a disarming “Hi everyone,” and then, “I’m very happy to be with you tonight,” before charging into the news.

So began the struggle to redefine the third-place CBS news organization, which has fewer correspondents than any network but has the biggest name as its anchorwoman.

Couric faces a big challenge in bringing to CBS some of her NBC audience, which was younger and more female than that of the “Evening News.” For now, her audience is the one she inherited from Bob Schieffer, and the new “Evening News” seemed not so radically different as to drive those viewers away.

The pace of Tuesday’s telecast was brisk. The story mix seemed about as interesting as a 22-minute newscast can be these days.

The graphics and new set were understated in that big-money way. The lighting was not. It was orangey and seemed to be painted on everything, even the face of reporter Jim Axelrod, who was standing on the White House lawn for his remote but looked as if he had spent too much time in a tanning booth.

There was some red meat in the broadcast. Lara Logan returned to a spot in Afghanistan where she had reported from in 2004 to show it is now in Taliban hands.

There were warm fuzzies: photos of Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their new baby, Suri; and a story about a Wisconsin artist who arranges for painted portraits of children living in orphanages.

Through all the publicity over her switch to CBS, Couric has been resolute about defining herself and not letting others do it for her. She struck a decidedly centrist course Tuesday. First, a taped piece gave quality time to a speech by President Bush on terrorism. Couric then showed clips from an interview with columnist Thomas Friedman, who criticized the administration for withholding resources needed to fight terrorism.

In an admirable show of restraint -- admirable considering how the summer of hype had made one wonder if CBS was thinking of renaming the broadcast "Katie Couric and the News" -- the anchor waited until the end of the newscast to make herself the story. There she addressed one of those only-on-TV questions that she said she was asked often over the summer: how she planned to sign off each night.

That led to a video reel that would have been unimaginable under any previous CBS anchor. Starting with Edward R. Murrow’s “Good night and good luck,” it playfully included Dan Rather’s brief mid-’80s signoff, “Courage,” then went silly, with Ted Baxter from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Will Ferrell’s “Anchorman” character, Ron Burgundy, imploring his viewers to “stay classy.”