Bob Schieffer never expected so much praise.

When the much-awarded journalist and "Face the Nation" host stepped in as anchor of the weeknight "CBS Evening News" after Dan Rather left the desk in March, it was meant only as an interim stint until the naming of a permanent replacement. From the start, though, reviews of Schieffer's "Evening News" performance have been so positive that despite his stated intention to retire from CBS on his 70th birthday -- early in 2007 -- the "interim" job might last longer than first envisioned.

"This is just a great adventure for me," says Schieffer, who joined CBS News in 1969. "I must say I'm having the time of my life. It was as much a surprise to me that I was asked to do this as I'm sure it was to other people when it was announced.

"I anchored the weekend 'CBS Evening News' for 23 years, but I hadn't done that since 1996, so I'd forgotten how much fun it is to put together a newscast every day. We're just really enjoying what we're doing here, and we all seem to be having more fun than maybe we should be."

On Schieffer's watch, some "CBS Evening News" changes have been cosmetic, such as a revised opening that showcases several reporters who deliver stories during the ensuing half-hour. Schieffer credits executive producer Jim Murphy with the idea.

"Dan left on a Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning, we just kind of fooled around with it. The next day, I was on a satellite hookup with Bob McNamara, one of our real stalwarts in our Dallas bureau. He said, 'Boy, that is a really different opening. I wish you'd given us some warning.' I said, 'Well, Bob, the reason we didn't warn you is that ol' Murphy and I just thought it up yesterday.' It's been a big hit."

Many critics also have noted a shift in the "Evening News" anchor technique since Rather's exit, with fellow Texas native Schieffer often engaging reporters in follow-up questions that yield a more informal style.

"I have had this idea for a long, long time," Schieffer says, "that the best way to do the news would be if somehow, the correspondents could talk to each other on the air the way they do in the newsroom. That's where you get all the candor, all the color, all the stuff that normally doesn't end up in a formal presentation. Everybody was a little apprehensive in the beginning, but now, they're all into it and really getting a big kick out of it ... and I think we're getting more information on the air.

"All of the evening news programs, not just ours, have to evolve into something beyond what they are right now," Schieffer says. "Basically, they're a summary of what's happened during the day. We've found out over and over that when people turn on the evening news, they already know what the headlines are. What we have to do is tell them something that goes beyond what they've heard all day on cable or read all day on their computers.

"That doesn't mean you're always going to have some exclusive fact nobody else knows about, but where we can really be of service to the viewer is to put everything in perspective. We can say, 'This is really different from what you've been seeing on Capitol Hill' or `This is something serious you should pay attention to, and here's why.'"

Such an approach makes Schieffer pleased by political reporter Gloria Borger's recent return to CBS News after her time at CNBC. "Gloria is a real expert," Schieffer says. "She's been covering Washington for a long, long time, and if we're going to do what we're doing with `CBS Evening News,' we want to be talking to experts. She brings a perspective you don't normally get in just a straight news story. Covering the news is our first responsibility, obviously, but it seems to me that this is the little something extra we can bring."

And as for the resulting raves? Schieffer couldn't be happier that "people have noticed the difference. I didn't think they would this early on, but they've really seen that we're doing things in kind of a different way. It's fun to get to try out something that you always thought would work, and to have it get a good reaction. I'm on the 'Imus in the Morning' radio show a lot, and I have discovered that the reason [Don] Imus gets stuff out of people is that he's very informal about it, and you wind up just having a chat."

The same applies to Schieffer's relationship with viewers. One example: a recent report on the stealing of personal data, which he began by looking into the camera and saying, "If like me, you're confused about data theft ... ."

"We are not know-it-alls here," Schieffer says, "and that's what I've told the correspondents. I said, 'I'm not going to tell you what questions I'll ask you, but I'm also not going to ask you something you don't know about. And if you don't know, just say so. That not only gives you credibility; it gives me credibility.' That's what I always admired about Walter Cronkite. He never passed himself off as somebody who knew everything, but you knew he'd done his homework."

How much longer Schieffer keeps doing his for "CBS Evening News" is anyone's guess. Putting his money where his mouth is, he admits he just doesn't know.

"They asked me to do this for a while, and they never gave me any sort of timeline," he says. "I assumed it would be months rather than years, but if I was asked right now to do it for an extended amount of time, I don't know what my response would be. If they asked this afternoon, I'd probably say yes, because I'm having so much fun. Three months from now, I might feel differently. I'm just taking it day by day, but everybody seems happy so far."