It's been a slow climb from the ratings basement and there's still a long way still to go, but Scott Pelley and the CBS Evening News has quietly gone from laughing stock to respectable.

Many would argue that CBS has been doing the best evening newscast for quite some time, but it's really just now starting to show up in the ratings.

Last week, the CBS Evening News 600,000 viewers compared to the same week last year.

Pelley's newscast has posted year-to-year percentage increases among adults 25-54 (1.5/05 from 1.4/05, +7%), the demographic most important to those who advertise in News, as well as viewers (6.62m from 6.02m, +10%) and households (4.4/08 from 4.1/08, +7%), according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for the week ending March 22.

As we said, CBS has a long way to go....the broadcast is still in third place.

But, the gang at CBS can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And for the first time in a longtime, that light isn't an oncoming train.