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 that Johnson did not see the original broadcast but also defended the allegation that Johnson had made the remark. According to Schieffer, Johnson's aide George Christian "told me that the President apparently saw some clips of it the next day" and that "That's when he made the remark about Cronkite. But he knew then that it would take more than Americans were willing to give it." When asked about the remark during a 1979 interview, Christian claimed he had no recollection about what the President had said. In his 1996 memoir "A Reporter's Life", Cronkite claimed he was at first