People from the entertaiment side of Viacom are getting input into high-level talks involving the coming restructuring of the CBS Evening News, the NYT reports.

An excerpt from the May 23 story:

One of the six attendees was Terry Wood, who developed the "Dr. Phil" talk show and "The Insider," a celebrity news program, and who now supervises those programs as an executive at Paramount Television and King World Productions, both Viacom divisions. Ms. Wood, in a high-profile flourish of corporate synergy, was responsible for the recent CBS prime-time special in which Dr. Phil (Phillip McGraw) interviewed Pat O'Brien, the host of "The Insider," about his treatment for substance abuse. She is a close associate of Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS.

Ms. Wood formerly worked for Oprah Winfrey's production company, Harpo, and before that was a producer at CBS News, including on "60 Minutes" and Mr. Rather's program.

She was accompanied to the meeting by Larry M. Rickel, a consultant based in San Antonio who is generally called upon by local news directors to suggest how they might improve their programming. Mr. Rickel has also served as a consultant to Ms. Wood on "The Insider" and another program she oversees, "Entertainment Tonight."

They were joined by David Sirulnick, executive vice president of news at MTV, also a Viacom unit, which has occasionally collaborated with CBS News, including on news segments for MTVU, the channel's on-campus network.

The three remaining participants were Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News; Marcy McGinnis, senior vice president of news coverage for the division; and Jim Murphy, executive producer of the "CBS Evening News" for Mr. Rather and his interim replacement, Bob Schieffer.