CBS executives deny it, but there's a growing feeling within the network that Katie Couric is an expensive, unfixable mistake.

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"It's a disaster. Everybody knows it's not working. CBS may not cut her loose, but I guarantee you, somebody's thinking about it. We're all hunkered down, waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Couric "is the current anchor and the anchor of the future," [CBS News president Sean] McManus says. "Everyone at the network, from my boss [CBS Corp. president and chief executive Leslie Moonves] on down, is 100 percent behind her."

"Katie is the anchor until she decides to ride off into the sunset and do something else," says [Rick] Kaplan, named e.p. March 8. "There is no one, no one, wringing their hands around here."

She arrived at CBS with her own group of producers, bookers and assistants, which didn't sit well with the staff.

"She sees herself as a star and thinks the whole news department is here to serve her," says a longtime CBS correspondent.

Former anchors Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Schieffer "saw themselves as leaders of the journalistic team," the correspondent says. "We felt we were part of something bigger than we were."