Richard S. Salant for nine years and would become the president of the CBS News Division when Stanton appointed him in February of 1961. Salant was president of CBS News from 1961 to 1964 and from 1966 to 1979. The "New York Times" credits him with raising professional standards and expanding news programming at CBS. During his tenure, CBS was the first network to expand its week-night news report to 30 minutes. Under his leadership, CBS also introduced "60 Minutes" and the "CBS Morning News" and "Sunday Morning" programs. Salant's first major decision was to replace Douglas Edwards with Walter Cronkite. At this
CBS Evening News background on the news set (which had been used since the 2008 elections) was replaced by a replica of the globe fixture during the Cronkite era, and the James Horner theme was replaced by the 1987–91 theme composed by Trivers-Myers Music that was used during the Rather era. In his first 9 months in the anchor chair, Pelley gained an additional 821,000 viewers. CBS News also enjoyed increases in its audience for special news events. After election night, 2012, Variety wrote, "With Scott Pelley front and center; the Eye was up 8% from four years ago." The CBS Evening News