Pelley taking Couric's anchor seat

NEW YORK - Scott Pelley, named on Tuesday to replace Katie Couric as "CBS Evening News" anchor, promised to bring his "60 Minutes" sensibility to his new job when he starts June 6.

CBS hasn't set an exit date for Couric, who is expected to start a daytime talk show at either ABC or CBS. Her contract expires June 4.

Pelley, who has been at CBS since 1989, said he instantly agreed when asked to fill the anchor seat that had been occupied by Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer before Couric took over five years ago this fall. CBS has rarely been out of last place in the news ratings the past decade.

"The opportunity to lead the organization as managing editor of the evening news is something you aspire to, something you never believe you could actually achieve," Pelley said in an interview Tuesday.

Pelley, 53, has been at "60 Minutes" since 2004, and he's won 14 Emmys and two Peabody awards. He joked that he had expected to stay at the job "all the way up to the mandatory retirement age of 95."

Jeff Fager, the CBS News chairman and executive producer of "60 Minutes," said he thought it was important for CBS to choose a new anchor from within. Even as it has fallen on hard times, CBS News is filled with veterans who take the network's tradition dating back to Edward R. Murrow very seriously, and many of them never quite took to Couric.