Katie Couric's ascension to the anchor chair was attended by a ceaseless and intrusive promotional blitz that ended up serving as a handy contrast to the epic editorial and commercial failure that her newscast became. Having learned that lesson well, ABC News has gone for a stealth transition, which makes sense inasmuch as nobody really cares who is reading from a teleprompter on TV while they're on the way home from work anyway. As the New York Times' Alessandra Stanley puts it, "Network anchors are a bit like European monarchs: they don't really matter much anymore, but people still perk up for a royal wedding or a changing of the stars."

There will be a time when everyone gets their entertainment through cortex-implanted microchips. But for now, people are still watching a lot of "traditional" (i.e. not Hulu) television. According to a Nielsen study, 99% of video viewing is via TV.