Douglas Edwards attract a larger audience. Edward's last newscast on the evening news was on April 13, 1962. On April 16, 1962, Edwards was replaced by Walter Cronkite, and the program became Walter Cronkite with the News. On September 2, 1963, the program was retitled "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" and became the first half-hour weeknight news broadcast of network television and was moved to 6:30 p.m. . For several years, both during his time as network anchor and after leaving the CBS anchor chair, Edwards anchored the local late news team on WCBS-TV, channel 2, the network's flagship television station
Walter Cronkite assassination on November 22, 1963. Another factor in Cronkite and CBS' ascendancy to the top of the ratings was that, as the decade progressed, RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels that CBS provided for its news broadcasts. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for greater accuracy and depth in coverage. This reputation meshed well with Cronkite's wire service experience, and in 1967 the "CBS Evening News" began to surpass "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" in viewership during the summer months. In 1969, during the Apollo 11 (with co-host and former astronaut Wally Schirra) and Apollo