How would Bob Schieffer reinvigorate “The CBS Evening News?” “Well, I think you just got to go with younger people like me. I’m part of the youth movement,” he deadpans to The New York Sun, before breaking into a guffaw to show he’s kidding.

The 68-year-old Austin, Texas, native, who has been named as the interim anchor of the network’s 6:30 p.m. flagship news broadcast, is indeed younger than the man he’ll replace next month, 74-year-old Dan Rather. But Mr. Schieffer is aware of the irony of being called upon at this stage in his career to breathe fresh life, at least temporarily, into an aging brand.

Even before the controversy over the network’s discredited report on President Bush’s National Guard service, which resulted in the firing of four senior producers – though, to the surprise of many, not of president Andrew Heyward – “Evening News” was lagging far behind its competitors, ABC’s “World News Tonight,” and NBC’s “Nightly News,” in the ratings.

But even amid a struggling group, CBS is the clear laggard, with just 7.3 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” and ABC’s “World News Tonight” draw 10.6 million and 9.4 million respectively.

Mr. Schieffer, predictably, disputes the assessment that “Evening News” is in trouble, though he’s not averse to some of the more innovative ideas – a multi-anchor format, for instance, perhaps including desks in Europe, the Middle East, or the West Coast – being thrown around lately as ways to spice up the broadcast.

But he sees questions of presentation as beside the point. “These are all cosmetic things … whether we go to multiple anchors, or single anchor, or an off-camera narrator,” he said. “It’s putting the information that people need to know on your television every evening – that’s how you get people to watch.”

As for the succession issue, Mr. Schieffer is tight-lipped about speculation that the decision to turn to him as interim anchor means the network is setting its sights outside the company – perhaps on NBC’s Katie Couric – in its search for a permanent replacement for Mr. Rather. That would spell disappointment for the two leading internal candidates, White House correspondent John Roberts, and Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes.” But he’s happy to put himself out of the running. “I’m kind of like Vice President Cheney. I aspire to no higher office,” he told the Sun.

Still, he could end up being in the anchor chair long enough for viewers to get used to him. When Mr. Schieffer, who’s covered Washington for CBS for more than 30 years, asked company brass how long he was expected to serve, “They said a while. And I said how long is a while, and they said a while. Depends on the meaning of a while,” he said.

His suggestion for attracting young people, most of whom would sooner throw away their iPods than watch the evening news? “Put in a draft,” he said. “Young people will tune in every day because they know that’s going to affect their lives.”

Since that doesn’t look likely, at least until American bombs start falling on Tehran, he plans to stick with the fundamentals: “You just put on the very best newscast that you can, and you put on information that is relevant to people’s lives. And if you can do that, they’ll watch, and if you don’t, they won’t. I don’t think that has anything to do with age or anything else.”

That’s in keeping with the tried-and-true formula that’s been working for Mr. Schieffer at his current gig as host of “Face the Nation,” CBS’s Sunday morning political talk show, whose ratings have been surging lately.

“We don’t do anything fancy on “Face the Nation,” he said. “We bring in the guy that’s the closest to the top story of the week that we can find … and we ask him questions. And that’s about it … What people don’t want, and especially on Sunday mornings, is surprise … Putting all these bells and whistles and fancy graphics and all that crap … it doesn’t help attract viewers.”

Mr. Rather was distrusted by conservatives, who suspected him of liberal bias long before Memo-gate. But could Mr. Schieffer have the opposite problem? He once told CNN’s Larry King: “When someone comes out of the South, I’m always kind of secretly pulling for them.” His brother, Tom, was a partner of George W. Bush when the future president bought the Texas Rangers, and is now U.S. ambassador to Australia. Bob Schieffer used to enjoy Rangers games seated alongside Bush in the owner’s box. Does any of this mean he was rooting for his fellow Texan this time around?

“Not particularly,” he says, referring to the comment about Southern candidates as “kind of a joke.” “I like [the president]. I’ve known him for along time. But I disagree with him on a lot of issues.”

Mr. Schieffer seems to like almost everyone he covers. He even claims to like Al Gore, despite having denounced the former vice president on a Washington, D.C., radio station for “stab[bing] his old running-mate, Joe Lieberman, in the back,” by endorsing Howard Dean in December 2003. “Once again,” said Mr. Schieffer at the time, “Al Gore, who has either sought public office or held public office all his life, sees a chance, one more chance, to get back in the game.”

As for the task ahead, Mr. Schieffer knows his prime value is as a safe pair of hands. “We’ve been through some pretty tough times here, and I think if I can get everybody just to take a breath and step back and get back to work … We’re just going to start each day with a blank sheet of paper and see what we can put on it by 6:30.”