The appointment five years ago of Katie Couric as evening news anchor represented a bold step, certainly something new for CBS News. Her likely successor, Scott Pelley, harkens back to a day when CBS was the gold standard in television news. Pelley, the “60 Minutes” correspondent who has worked at CBS for 21 years, is expected to be named next week as anchor of the third-rated evening newscast, to compete nightly with Brian Williams of NBC and Diane Sawyer of ABC. Many at CBS News see no other candidate.

The expected new anchor is a courtly, 53-year-old Texan, born in San Antonio. Pelley worked in local TV news in Dallas and Lubbock, and worked at CBS as a Texas-based national correspondent. He was a CBS News White House correspondent during the end of the Clinton years, became a correspondent for the short-lived “60 Minutes II” spinoff and joined “60 Minutes” in 2003.