With reports circulating that Katie Couric will soon depart the CBS Evening News after a largely disappointing tenure as anchor, I have to eat a little columnist crow.

Back in December 2004, when I was editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable, I got a tip from an impeccable source that Couric was being courted by CBS boss Les Moonves to leave NBC's Today show and move to the Tiffany Network to become the first solo female anchor.

At the time, I thought it was an inspired choice and that Couric truly had a shot at raising the Evening News from a long stretch in the basement of the nightly-news race. I was wrong.

Of course, that won't stop me from leaping in to offer my take on why it didn't work.

While much of the handicapping early on focused on the question of whether America was ready for a woman anchor at 6:30, I think gender ultimately was a non-issue (it clearly didn't prevent Diane Sawyer from slipping seamlessly into the chair vacated by Charles Gibson at ABC World News in 2010). Couric's inability to effect sustained ratings growth has more to do with over-promising and under-delivering on efforts to revitalize the evening-news format and a badly bruised news organization.

The truth is, Couric inherited a tarnished franchise. Long-mired in third place in the nightly-news race, CBS's flagship newscast was ably kept afloat by Bob Schieffer before Couric came over.  The longtime Face The Nation host entered in the wake of Dan Rather's stormy departure over a flawed 60 Minutes report on George W. Bush's National Guard service, a scandal that had turned the news division upside down.  Moreover, CBS News didn't have nearly the resources to draw on compared to its competitors, most notably NBC News, with the long dominate Today, its robust cable networks, and its thriving MSNBC.com site.  (ABC may have lacked the cable presence, but Good Morning America provided a strong promotional platform, as did the relative lead-in strength of its stations and affiliates, thanks to Oprah Wnfrey and strong local news.

Enter Couric, with a reported $15 million contract, into one of the most hidebound news organizations in the business, still smarting from years of downsizing. Contrary to Moonves's long professed and primarily practiced philosophy on under-promising, the build-up to Couric's September 2006 debut was quite the opposite.

Then came the debut. In her first weeks on the newscast, one of the most gifted naturals in the business presided uncomfortably over 22 minutes that were overrun by gimmicks.  By the time the format got straightened out and Couric was running on all cylinders, the audience had already sampled and moved on. And with ever more sources to get news, the nightly news game is more and more about grabbing a piece of an ever-shrinking pie.

It wasn't for any want of trying on Couric's part.  She's to be applauded on several fronts, including her unflinching interview with Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, her embrace of the web and social media, and her willingness to experiment.  In the end, which apparently is imminent, Couric will leave with her brand as a seasoned journalist with top-notch interviewing chops largely intact.

Word is that her next act will be in the potentially lucrative daytime arena, where many are vying to fill the void soon to be left by the end of Oprah's syndicated run. I may not have called it right last time, but I say the odds are good that Couric can make a go of it in daytime. If I'm wrong, a little crow now and then isn't so bad.