She had just received an Alfred I. duPont - Columbia University Award for her reporting on Syria, which was broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.
On December 19, CBS reported that US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said in an interview with Scott Pelley for 60 Minutes that Iran will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
Pelley is everything Couric was not: an internal hire, relatively cheap (probably), cast from the traditional anchor mold (read: a white guy with a nice head of hair), with a background primarily in hard news.