After months of speculation, by everybody from E! News to The New York Times, that Katie Couric will soon end her rocky tenure as anchor of "CBS Evening News," network chief Leslie Moonves stormed into the newsroom last week and attempted to snuff out the flames.

According to The Associated Press, he told the staff that Couric, the first female solo evening news anchor, isn't leaving. He was adamant. He said she's "your anchor." Unspoken but implied: So get used to it and stop whining ... for now.

Seriously, Mr. Moonves, will Couric stay perched at the CBS anchor desk despite bad press and historically low ratings? Only two years into a five-year, $15 million-a-year contract, Couric has bombed. She will not be anchoring "Evening News" in 2009 and may well exit right after the November election and before the January inauguration.

CBS doesn't want a lame duck quacking on the air, so the corporate denial ensues. If CBS made public its plans to change anchors, viewership might decline even further before the switch. Can't risk that.

But people are already speculating on Couric's future and the future of the CBS anchor job.

To be fair, she was hopelessly miscast at CBS. Anchoring the creaky evening news never played to perky Katie's "Today" strengths. People wanted to see her giggling and chatting, not droning through the day's news. And the revamped newscast, with soaring music and catastrophic gimmicks like the "Free Speech" segments, invited ridicule.

It didn't help that Couric arrived at "Evening News" when the three network newscasts were swooning as they dropped from a combined audience of 30 million a decade ago to the current level of 24 million viewers. More and more people are getting their news from cable and the Web. A 30-minute reprise seems like old news. Under Couric, CBS plunged to a historic low of 5 million viewers before leveling off at 6.7 million — still well below top-rated NBC (9 million) and ABC (8.8 million).

So, who will take the throne once occupied by the beloved Walter Cronkite? We've got candidates, some serious, some not so serious, but all worth pondering.

1. Scott Pelley — Seriously. Another Texan (in addition to natives Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer and nearly native Cronkite) in the Big Eye newsroom, the distinguished "60 Minutes" correspondent just might be CBS' savior. At 50, he's relatively young and has serious reporting chops along with a sincere, comforting demeanor. He has covered wars, politics, the White House, the Branch Davidian standoff near Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing.

2. Lesley Stahl — If CBS wants to replace its first female solo anchor with another woman, how about someone who has been at CBS a long time and has the necessary skills and gravitas? A "60 Minutes" reporter since 1991, she covered the White House during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Stahl spent eight seasons anchoring "Face the Nation" and has reported a range of big stories. At 66, she's no spring chicken, but neither is the traditional network news viewer.

3. Bryant Gumbel — Once the darling of morning TV, Gumbel ended his 15-year run on "Today," paired with Couric, in 1997. It's been more or less downhill ever since. He moved to CBS, just like Couric, and served a three-year sentence on CBS' low-rated "Early Show." Then he landed at HBO with "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel." Now he languishes as a play-by-play guy on the NFL Network. On the surface, Gumbel, 59, seems finished, but everybody loves a comeback.

4. Comedy Central's Jon Stewart (maybe) or Stephen Colbert (absolutely not) — These names keep popping up, and one can only assume the whispers come from insiders at NBC and ABC News. No way is CBS ready to turn its evening newscast into an outright joke. On the other hand, most people recognize that Stewart, 45, is keen on politics and foreign affairs and semi-obsessed with news. If the goal is smart and quirky, the fake news anchor could turn legit.

5. Anderson Cooper — CNN's 40-year-old hipster seems like a long shot, but he also contributes to "60 Minutes" from time to time and appeals to the younger demographic. On the negative side, he talks way too fast and often comes across as a tad sarcastic.

So, talk among yourselves. Who do you want to see on CBS News? Any of the above? None?

In the meantime, don't cry for Katie Couric.

CBS has to pay the $75 million on her five-year contract whether she's anchoring or not.