This NYT piece looks at three anchors who found themselves newsreading from the beaches of South and Southeast Asia in an attempt to grab viewers.

An excerpt:

The tsunami also struck at a critically important moment in the careers of three star anchors - Brian Williams of NBC, Dan Rather of CBS and Anderson Cooper of CNN - who each traveled to the region to lead hours of coverage last week.

The tsunami also hit at a moment of transition and high competitiveness for those anchors' respective news organizations, and each sought to seize the story to gain strategic advantage while gaining viewers.

Though none of the anchors were sent over immediately after the disaster - the television world, like the world in general, was slow to grasp the enormity of the loss - the networks were soon jousting with one other to draw attention to their respective coverage. In press releases and telephone calls to reporters who cover the television industry, network executives crowed about which anchor was first where, whether it was the first evening news anchor on the ground in Asia (a matter of some dispute, at least initially) or the first to interview Secretary of State Colin L. Powell for a morning program (Diane Sawyer of ABC's "Good Morning America").

In mounting their public-relations campaigns, however quietly, the networks were mindful that whatever the drop in network television viewership in recent years, people tend to flock back at times of crisis. And this story, like the Sept. 11 attacks or the capture of Saddam Hussein, offered that rare chance to try to recapture their interest.