If the rampant but rather bland buzz is to be believed, CBS News will tap 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley as the next anchor of the CBS Evening News, replacing the soon-to-depart (and almost certainly daytime-bound) Katie Couric.

By all accounts, Pelley’s a great guy, well-liked at CBS News, and a fine choice to inherit the chair once owned by Walter Cronkite. Picking Pelley would reshuffle the evening news anchor deck, returning it to mostly white guys, with ABC’s Diane Sawyer the only exception. But what if CBS decided on a more diverse choice? Who’s out there? Is there anybody worth a look?

Back at her old home, NBC’s TODAY, Katie Couric sat down with Matt Lauer to talk, naturally, about her new book. Making absolutely no mention of the frenzy of speculation surrounding Couric’s future as anchor of the CBS Evening News, Lauer and Couric had a casual chat about Couric’s book on life advice (“you have to keep trying” was one insider’s tip) for a full three minutes. It was only then that Lauer pivoted, asking “heard any good rumors lately?”

What’s next for CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric? If all the chatter’s got it right, she’s giving up the anchor chair and darting back to more comfortable turf, probably daytime TV. So here was Couric, on daytime TV’s The View, sitting alongside Barbara Walters, who’s made a career out of squeezing information out of tight-lipped celebrities. Could she get Couric to spill? Not exactly. “Every day you pick up the papers, it’s another headline,” Walters began, and Couric immediately said “it’s boring.”

In the last week news broke that, after months of speculation, it appeared that Katie Couric would be leaving the anchor desk at CBS’ Evening News. Later in the week, rumors also spread that Matt Lauer would be leaving the anchor desk at TODAY, capping a week that saw lots of movement among television hosts. Bill Carter is now reporting that Couric is “pursuing the idea of her own syndicated talk show, possibly with her former “Today” show co-host, Matt Lauer.”

There’s at least one person in the media that is rejoicing over the news that Katie Couric is probably leaving her position at CBS: Fox News’ Liz Trotta, who gave a scathing commentary today claiming the perception of Couric is as a journalist is “ridiculous,” and that her failure proved that “there’s a very big difference between doing the news… and giggling all the time.”

It seems fairly certain that very soon, CBS News will come to the end of the Katie Couric era. For many, that means an entertaining round of media speculation about who will inherit the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News.

Much of the speculation has focused on Scott Pelley, the CBS lifer who’s a correspondent at 60 Minutes. Pelley’s a nice guy, a good reporter and would surely do a fine job as an evening news anchor.

The Associated Press is reporting that an unnamed source identified as a network executive has confirmed that Katie Couric will be leaving the anchor chair at CBS Evening News. This comes as unexpected news to dozens of individuals who have not paid close attention to the many recent public and private comments concerning Couric’s future at CBS News that have given every indication that she is preparing to move on.

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, whose contract is set to expire in June, may stay at the network as a correspondent for 60 Minutes, according to a report in the New York Post. The paper’s Michael Shain cites “network insiders” saying “an offer to become a regular correspondent for the prestigious Sunday night TV magazine is part of the package being offered Couric–if she’ll stay and do a projected daytime talk show for CBS.”

The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz says CBS News is deep into the process of finding a replacement for Evening News anchor Katie Couric, whose contract ends in June. “The search is on” for a worthy successor, writes Kurtz, with “the new CBS News chairman, Jeff Fager, is looking at candidates both within and outside the network, insiders say.”

A top contender at CBS, Kurtz says, is 60 Minutes‘ Scott Pelley:

While some predict that Katie Couric‘s career at CBS will not last much longer, others like David Letterman refuse to give up hope. Couric appeared last night with Letterman and confirmed her contract is up in June and that she is exploring her options. Some disappointment was heard from the crowd and Letterman asked “you can’t leave the network can you?”

Katie Couric‘s position at CBS News has come under question recently as reports have indicated both that their head anchorwoman may be looking for another home or that the network is attempting to significantly reduce her pay. And now resident media man at The O’Reilly Factor and veteran analyst Bernie Goldberg is betting his hat on it: “As anchorwoman of the CBS News, when her contract is out, she is gone.”

Conservative media lightning rod and former “Matt Drudge bitch“ Andrew Breitbart is nothing if not quotable, a quality he displays to amusing effect (intentionally and otherwise) in his interview for April’s issue of GQ magazine. Asked why former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R-FNC) wasn’t on his 2012 dream ticket (he picked Allen West and Michele Bachmann), Breitbart responded that the job was “beneath” her. The governorship of Alaska must have been positively subterranean, then.

Could CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric find a new home at ABC when her contract with CBS expires this summer? The New York Post‘s Michael Shain quotes unnamed sources who say Couric’s been “quietly meeting with ABC,” including a get together last month with recently-named ABC News president Ben Sherwood. Shain’s sources describe the meetings as an effort by ABC to “kick the tires” and see if there’s an option that would work for both Couric and the network.

The February finishing order for the network evening newscasts didn’t look much different, with Brian Williams‘ NBC Nightly News taking top honors, followed by Diane Sawyer‘s ABC World News and Katie Couric‘s CBS Evening News finishing last.

But at ABC, news execs point to promising signs World News is making progress. It was the best ratings ABC’s best February performance in three years, and compared to February 2010, World News grew its total audience by one percent, the only network evening news program to grow (CBS was down by 4% and NBC dropped by 10%).

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric previously proved she could make fun of herself with an appearance alongside actress Jane Lynch on the television show Glee, yet this time Couric owns all the laughs herself. In a Funny or Die video, Couric goes out in the field to do a report on whether a group of young kids is able to “shake the sillies out” and after she gets a case of the sillies herself, hilarity ensues.

Last year Katie Couric got some attention in her year end recap by suggesting a unique remedy to what she called “the bigot expressed against Muslims in this country.” Couric proposed an uncommon solution, saying “Maybe we need a Muslim version of The Cosby Show.” In light of the images coming from upheaval in various predominantly Islamic countries, The Daily Show took Couric’s suggestion to heart.

A day after CBS News shook up its leadership, replacing CBS News president Sean McManus and handing control of the news division to 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager, comes word the network is eager to keep Katie Couric in her role as anchor of the CBS Evening News–but for far less than she’s making now.

The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz reports CBS wants Couric to remain in her post at least through the 2012 elections–a move that would require an extension of Couric’s contract, set to expire in May:

The uprising in Egypt forced an airlift of American news anchors to Cairo, but NBC’s Brian Williams outperformed his counterparts in terms of ratings, hitting a six-year high for his NBC Nightly News for the week ending February 5. Nightly averaged more than 11.2 million viewers, the newscast’s best showing since January 2005.

NBC execs point out that the ratings for Nightly were bigger than the viewership of some primetime shows, including ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (11.182 million viewers) and The Bachelor (9.660 million).

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric tells the New York Post she didn’t have a hand in the decision to replace Early Show co-hosts Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez, but she did mention that Erica Hill, who was then at CNN, might be worth watching.

“I first saw Erica on Anderson Cooper,” Couric tells the Post‘s Michael Shain, “and I liked that she was cheeky and seemed to have a sense of humor.”

Last night FOX chose to air their hit show Glee in the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot. The football themed episode featured the cast performing their take on “Thriller” in addition to having the CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric drop by to interview “loser of the year” Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch’s hilarious cheerleading coach).

Yesterday CBS’ Katie Couric called into Reliable Sources to discuss the dangers journalists are facing in Egypt and to share some of her own scares. Coruic described the scene as a “turbo-charged street fair” and admitted she was a little nervous when the supporters of Egyptian President Mubarak began demonstrating great animosity towards the press and towards America.

An online nation may have laughed last week at the mid-1990s naivete of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric as they tried to figure out what this whole “internet” thing is about, but NBC wasn’t laughing: they fired the employee that released the video. But not everyone is so opposed to leaking retro vids: the Red Eye crew came to his defense, and even “released” a video gem of their own.

If this is true, it’s very sad. Last week, an amazing video from 1994 was posted online showing Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel sitting on the Today set and trying to wrap their heads around this whole “Internet” thing. The video instantly went viral and was posted on countless websites (including Mediaite). Well, now it would appear that the guy who posted it has been fired by NBC for leaking it.

On Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski engaged in a passive-aggressive battle over Katie Couric‘s vacation time and Rush Limbaugh‘s marriages. The debate revolved around whether either private subject is legitimate grounds for discussion, yet the whole situation left Scarborough telling Brzezinski “you’re making me uncomforable right now.”

After days of largely peaceful protest and media attention from around the world, Cairo became a far more dangerous place to be for journalists today–especially Americans. “The Egyptian government is employing a strategy of eliminating witnesses to their actions,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Middle East and North Africa program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “The government has resorted to blanket censorship, intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on journalists carried out by pro-government mobs.”