New York ? Bob Schieffer may come across as everybody’s easygoing grandfather, but don’t be so easily fooled.

A companion at a New York restaurant hasn’t been seated for a minute before Schieffer casually pulls a sheet of paper from his suit jacket. Oh, look! It’s a news release showing how ratings for the “CBS Evening News” have gone up in the year since he’s been anchor.

Beneath the genial exterior beats a newsman’s competitive heart.

Friday marks his first anniversary in a job he never thought he’d have, then thought he’d only be doing for a matter of weeks. Schieffer, 69, has proven more than a seat-warmer for Katie Couric – or whoever gets the job permanently – but a key transitional figure for CBS News.

“For me, coming into this job now, having Bob there was an enormous asset and luxury,” said Sean McManus, who became CBS News president in November.

During one week last month, Schieffer’s third-place broadcast had narrowed the gap with ABC’s “World News Tonight” by more than 1 million viewers over a year ago, when Dan Rather and the late Peter Jennings were on the job. It continues a quiet trend: NBC and ABC have been losing viewers this season, while CBS is gaining.

More importantly, Schieffer has lightened the mood from Rather’s final days and tried to heighten the visibility of the network’s correspondents.

“It does not seem to me like I’ve been doing this for a year,” Schieffer said. “It seems like I’ve been doing it for two weeks.”

The veteran “Face the Nation” host was told his interim anchor duty would last only a few weeks, two months tops. But the search for Rather’s successor dragged on. Now both he and CBS are happy to let the relationship continue as they await an answer from Couric, whose NBC contract expires in May.

Bob Schieffer anchors the CBS

Schieffer survived a bout with bladder cancer a few years ago. He’s said for a while that he wanted to retire from CBS News when he turned 70 (on Feb. 25, 2007). That date may be negotiable as the time approaches, but the point is the same – he’s winding down.

“If this had been 10 years ago, I’d be fighting like hell to get this job,” he said. “But it’s not 10 years ago. It’s now. I’m at a different stage in my life. One reason that I’ve been able to be objective about it is that I don’t want the job.”

In fact, he believes if he really wanted the job permanently he wouldn’t be as relaxed about it and probably wouldn’t have done as well.

Schieffer considers himself sort of a player-coach to the young CBS correspondents, leading to what has been his signature: a brief, conversational Q&A with the reporters after they’ve finished their reports. It may not be a revolutionary idea, but Schieffer said he’s noticed his rivals doing it more often.

The informal touch has made the evening news easier to watch, even though Schieffer believes it’s probably a more serious newscast than it had been.

He’s also helped lift the cloud that lingered over CBS News in the months after the network’s ill-fated report on President Bush’s National Guard service.

“I really do feel like we’ve come a long way from a year ago,” he said. “I think we’ve got the train back up on the tracks and running. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re heading in the right direction.”