Walter Cronkite 13 moon missions, Cronkite received the best ratings and made CBS the most-watched television network for the missions. In 1970, when Huntley retired, the "CBS Evening News" finally dominated the American TV news viewing audience. Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well-respected broadcast journalist John Chancellor, Cronkite proved to be more popular and continued to be top-rated until his retirement in 1981. One of Cronkite's trademarks was ending the "CBS Evening News" with the phrase "...And that's the way it is," followed by the date. Keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when
CBS Evening News interest stories, over time it returned to the hard news format popularized by Cronkite. In an April 2011 article, "The New York Times" reported that "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley was considered to be the front-runner to replace Couric as anchor of the program. On May 3, 2011, CBS confirmed that Pelley would replace Couric as anchor for the "CBS Evening News" in June. Harry Smith served as the interim anchor until Pelley's tenure started on June 6, 2011 (like Couric before him, Smith would also depart from CBS a month later). The graphics were subtly updated, the American flag