Binside TV: KATIE COURIC

Katie Couric interviewed heroic pilot Sullenberger who crash landed flight 1549 into the Hudson River. The pilot stopped by the CBS morning show.

Hero pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger reveals for the first time the sights, sounds and physical sensations he experienced as he pulled off an incredible water landing last month, saving the lives of all 155 people aboard US Airways Flight 1549.

He tells his riveting story for the first time to Katie Couric in an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

On Jan. 15, less than two minutes after taking off from LaGuardia Airport en route to Charlotte, N.C., the Airbus A320 struck a flock of large birds and lost power in both engines. An eerie silence and a disturbing smell followed. It was a moment like no other for the aircraft's captain. "It was the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling I've ever felt in my life," Sullenberger tells Couric. "I knew immediately it was very bad."

"Did you think, 'How are we going to get ourselves out of this?'" Couric asks. Sullenberger replies, "No. My initial reaction was one of disbelief."

Sullenberger then took control of the aircraft from First Officer Jeff Skiles and began to make the decisions and maneuvers that resulted in an emergency landing the world is still talking about.

The moment the birds entered his screen, the noises they made on impact, the thoughts running through his head, the distance to reach an airport, the river below - he recalls all of them for Couric in an interview that relives one of the major events in aviation history. source

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that unnamed CBS News executives and people close to Katie Couric, said on Wednesday she could leave her job as anchor of the low-rated "CBS Evening News" well before her contract expires in 2011. source Katie Couric made history as the first female news anchor in television when the former "Today Show" host replaced veteran news correspondent Dan Rather. Dan Rather ended his 24 year reign on as CBS Evening News Anchor after a controversial 2004 report on 60 minutes Wednesday. source Watch Dan Rather comment on Katie Couric.

Dan Rather Blasts His Former Boss Les Moonves

Katie Couric Bashes Dan Rather

Katie Couric and CBS News are talking for the first time about her giving up the anchor chair after the November election if her ratings don't improve, a course that could result in her leaving the network, sources familiar with the situation say.

These sources say the network's top executives believe Couric is doing an excellent job on the "CBS Evening News," but that both sides have grown frustrated with a situation in which she seems mired in third place and unable to use the range of talents that made her a superstar in morning television. They stress that a final decision won't be made until late summer at the earliest.

If Couric is eased out as anchor, CBS plans to offer her either a syndicated talk show or a full-time role on "60 Minutes." Otherwise, executives have signaled they would release her from her contract to seek a better deal elsewhere.

The discussions are described as amicable but suffused by a sense that CBS's five-year, $75 million gamble on the former "Today" co-host is not paying off, at least according to the cold, hard Nielsen ratings numbers on which advertising is sold. The executives involved recognize that a significant improvement in the ratings is unlikely. The sources, both within and outside CBS, described the situation on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive personnel issues involved.

If Couric were to leave, it would mean new turmoil for a news division that was rocked by the 2005 ouster of Dan Rather after CBS retracted his story about President Bush's National Guard service. She succeeded interim anchor Bob Schieffer in September 2006 on a wave of intense publicity but drove away some viewers with a feature-heavy format while also alienating a number of CBS journalists. source

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