Video: Back on The March at CBS News

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Even Aaron Altman, the hapless network correspondent in Broadcast News, could not have imagined a worse nightmare than the one that befell CBS on Sept. 11. The news division had already weathered a truly awful year of layoffs, dissension and drooping ratings. Then, on that memorable Friday, network technicians switched to a studio in Miami for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, only to find an anchor chair without Dan Rather. He had left the set minutes before, miffed that coverage of a U.S. Open tennis match was running over. The result was an unprecedented six minutes of empty air time. The black screen was a humiliating symbol for TV's most troubled news division. But it turns out to have marked a nadir followed by a swift and surprising turnaround.

Just four months later, activity and spirits at CBS News are higher than they have been since Laurence Tisch took control of the company 16 months ago. Rather's disappearing act was followed almost immediately by an upsurge in the Evening News ratings, courtesy of a September change in measuring the audience. In late November the low-rated Morning Program, an empty-calorie confection that replaced the CBS Morning News, was canceled after 10 1/2 months, and its time period was given back to the news division. Next week the network will introduce an ambitious new documentary series, 48 Hours. Added to 60 Minutes and West 57th, that will give CBS three full hours of news programming in prime time -- more than any other network present or past.

"We have gone from defense to offense," says David Corvo, executive producer of the new CBS This Morning, "from reductions to production." The manic rebound from depression has its ironies: after laying off 230 news staffers last year, the network has now added more than 100 to handle the increased programming. Cynical insiders note that the departed have been replaced by less expensive newcomers: "Producerettes, we call them," says one survivor. Tisch sees the renewed signs of life as proof that his cost cutting was justified. "It was painful," he says, "but we've come out stronger for it."

Perhaps so. 48 Hours, which will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST, could be the most innovative prime-time news series since 60 Minutes debuted in 1968. The show will focus on a single subject each week, with all shooting done in a two-day period and much of it presented in raw chunks with minimum narration. For an upcoming hour on the city of Miami, for example, CBS cameras follow, among others, a Latin real estate agent tooling around town in his limousine and drug agents fruitlessly combing a suspected smuggler's boat. "The aim," says Executive Producer Andrew Heyward, "is to let the viewer experience the story firsthand as it unfolds, the way reporters do."

Other segments in preparation include looks at a big-city airport (Denver's Stapleton) and a hospital (Dallas' Parkland Memorial). But the producers intend to be flexible enough to switch at the last minute from a scheduled show to one covering a major breaking story. With Rather as anchor and a full- time staff of 48 (no fooling), 48 Hours has already given the whole news staff an "adrenaline surge," says News President Howard Stringer.