NEW YORK -- If Katie Couric is to make her move to the "CBS Evening News" a success, she'll need more people like Amy Lindgren.

Slideshow: Couric Says She's Leaving 'Today'

"I really love her," said Lindgren, a 27-year-old mother of two from Denmark, Maine. "I watch ABC now, but I'd rather watch Katie than the person doing the evening news (at ABC) now. She's outgoing, she's energetic and she seems to relate to the people nicely."

Lindgren is among the 29 percent of people responding to an Associated Press-TV Guide poll this week who said they preferred Couric in the evening. Forty-nine percent of the people said they favored Couric in the morning.

Couric announced Wednesday that she is leaving "Today" after 15 years as host next month. She'll become anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" in September.

Despite the public's initial wariness, the poll suggests Couric has a chance to catch on at night, or at least lift the CBS broadcast from third place behind NBC's "Nightly News" and ABC's "World News Tonight."

About half of the respondents said they'd be willing to give Couric a try in the evening. One is Dian Miller of Shepherdsville, Ky., who is a loyal CBS viewer.

"I like hearing Bob Schieffer," she said. "I liked Dan Rather, but I think a change is in order. I think it will be a lot better for other women coming up."

During a time of transition in television news, Couric at least has a chance of making an impression. Brian Williams, who with only a year in the job at NBC's "Nightly News" is the longest-tenured evening news anchor, was judged most popular in a list of nine TV news personalities that also included Schieffer and Elizabeth Vargas of "World News Tonight."

That's the good news for Williams. The bad news is he was named by only 6 percent of the respondents. More than two-thirds didn't list a favorite.

Paul Wendel, a 30-year-old accountant from Newtown, Pa., said he associates the evening news with a somber, older person.

"It doesn't mean she couldn't do a good job," he said, "but it isn't a person I would associate with the evening news."

Only veteran broadcaster Diane Sawyer of ABC's "Good Morning America" received higher marks than Couric, with more than seven in 10 viewing her favorably. Unfortunately for Couric, she also had 12 percent of the people who flat-out didn't like her, higher than for any of the news personalities tested.

"I don't like her phony perkiness," said Desiree Dillon, a writer from Benicia, Calif. "I find her to be rather patronizing. Some of her guests she just talks down to, and she wears her opinions on her sleeve."

The AP-TV Guide poll of 615 adults was conducted by Ipsos on Monday and Tuesday. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Six in 10 women said they would watch Couric in the evenings, compared with 38 percent of men.

"She kind of bugs me," said Ethelene Fortner of Tulsa, Okla. "I watched Bob Schieffer. He wasn't cocky and a know-it-all like most of them are."

NBC was moving swiftly to replace Couric. "The View" co-host Meredith Vieira, a former "60 Minutes" correspondent, was close Wednesday to accepting NBC's offer to join Matt Lauer on "Today" starting this fall, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because a deal had not been completed.

Couric turned down an offer of about $20 million a year to stay at NBC in order to take CBS' five-year deal at near her current salary of about $15 million, according to people close to negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because networks do not speak publicly about salaries. She's also agreed to do "60 Minutes" stories and prime-time specials for CBS.