Katie Couric by Andrew Eccles/CBS
War, what is it good for? Amping up one's profile among the evening-news-anchor elite, that's what. CBS has announced that Katie Couric will mark her first anniversary as Evening News frontwoman with a 12-day trip to Iraq and Syria, beginning Sept. 4. The answer to "OK, but why now?" is the status report being prepared by General David Petraeus that President Bush will use to determine the next steps in Operation Iraqi Freedom (if that is still the campaign's tagline). With Couric on the road, Early Show's Harry Smith will claim the Evening News helm.
read more
Katie Couric by Andrew Eccles/CBS
The unauthorized biography Katie: The Real Story claims, among many other things, that Katie Couric (during her bachelorette days) crippled the marriage of a CNN exec who promised to crown her a star, then as Today cohost deliberately ate into Matt Lauer's airtime and "did everything in her power" to squash the ascension of rising star Ann Curry.Author Edward Klein (who previously penned The Truth About Hillary, also posits that Couric's marriage to Jay Monahan was merely for show by the time he succumbed to cancer, and that only "her fear of negative publicity" kept them husband and wife. Asked for comment by the New York Daily News, Couric's spokesperson says, "The baseless gossip... doesn't merit a response."
read more
courtesy FNC
Shepard Smith’s fast-paced nightly program The Fox Report has been the most-watched cable news show at 7 pm since October 2001. But when the program celebrates its eighth anniversary in September, there’ll be a new set, new graphics and, Smith says, a whole new approach to delivering the day’s events. But, wait, didn’t we hear something about reinventing the evening news when Katie Couric was hired by CBS last year? The Biz talked with Smith about why he’s forging ahead with an overhaul to his program — and why you won’t see him moderate a presidential-candidates debate anytime soon.TVGuide.com: Why relaunch the program? Your ratings are good, and visually it’s always looked cutting-edge.Shepard Smith: It was when we first rolled it out. The goal is to always be able to communicate in a new and better way. There are certain kinds of stories that have never really worked well with television, stories that are just so visually deficient. We’...
read more
Oprah Winfrey, Simon Cowell and William Petersen
You can make a nice living in TV. Just ask Simon Cowell, who pulls in $45 million per year (for American Idol and other TV projects). Even the folks who serve chow to the cast and crew can make $3,000 over the eight days it takes to shoot an hourlong drama.
Here's a sample of who makes what, from Oprah to a production assistant just breaking into the biz.
NETWORK PRIME TIME (salary per episode)William Petersen, CSI $500,000Zach Braff, Scrubs
read more
Katie Couric by John Paul Filo/CBS
Offering Katie Couric some much-needed support in the wake of a New York Magazine profile that got tongues wagging about the Evening News anchor's days being numbered, CBS News president Sean McManus said he plans to see Couric fronting the newscast into 2010. "She has a five-year contract with CBS to anchor the evening news," McManus tells the Associated Press. "All of us, including Katie, expect her to be anchoring the evening news in her fifth year." McManus takes issue with news-biz bloggers who went so far as to solicit reader votes on who should replace Couric in the event she is ousted, calling such speculation-for-sport "absurd" and "insulting." (Whew, glad I stopped short of posting that particular poll!)
read more
CBS News — coincidentally in the wake of New York magazine's fantastically illuminating profile of its CBS Evening News anchor — announced on Monday that Katie Couric will headline its Election 2008 coverage not only on her nightly newscast, but throughout the network via special programming. Couric will also anchor a December 10 debate in Los Angeles between our last hopes the Democratic contenders.
read more
Katie Couric by Andrew Eccles/CBS
In a sitdown with New York Magazine, Katie Couric admits to having days "when I'm like, 'Oh my god, what did I do?'" with regards to the cold reception given her CBS Evening News cast. That said, she takes issue with those who find a certain glee in her woes. "I've gone through a bit of a feeding frenzy and there's blood in the water. This person who's been successful isn't so great, and finally she's being put in her place.... That kind of mentality [is] fairly primal." Other choice sound bites from the in-depth profile:• "[That] I'm not a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown... it's probably disappointing to some people, because in the arc of the story, that's what they want to see."• "I underestimated the feeling that some might have that I was a morning-show personality and not a credible news person. Which I, quite frankly, think is patently unfair."• On the topic of peers who have slammed her "anonymously" in the press (no less than Bob Schieffer and Lesley...
read more
Dan Rather by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
Refusing to walk away from what he started, Dan Rather has responded to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves' accusation that the veteran newsman's critique of the "dumbed down/tarted up" Evening News was a "sexist" "cheap shot." "It doesn't have to do with Katie [Couric], it doesn't have to do with gender," Rather contended Tuesday on Fox News. "It has to do with the corporate leadership. Les Moonves knows about entertainment, but he doesn't know about news." Does he know football? Because Bo knows football. (That joke was brought to you by the year 1989.)POLL: Was Dan Rather being "sexist"? Vote here.
read more
Dan Rather by John Filo/CBS
During a Monday call to MSNBC's Morning Joe program, Dan Rather shared his qualified take on why CBS Evening News has yet to emerge from the ratings basement (where he left it upon his March 2005 exit from the anchor chair). "The mistake was trying to bring the Today show ethos to the Evening News and dumb it down/tart it up, in hopes of attracting a younger audience," the veteran newsman said.Rather called current anchor Katie Couric "a nice person," but said that trying to change networks and jobs in one fell swoop, as she famously and publicly did, "is always difficult."UPDATE: Per TV Week, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said at a Tuesday breakfast conference that he is "surprised at the vitriol directed at [Couric]," and accused Rather of taking a "cheap shot" with his "sexist" remarks. "Give [Katie] a break," Moonves urged the crowd.
read more
I have been to two consecutive ABC upfront presentations and both times Jimmy Kimmel has simply slayed the audience with wonderfully pointed barbs. You think I, you and any Tom/Dick/TVLoverHarry here can bring the snark when cracking on TV shows/personalities? Just watch a pro — and one in the business called show — do it.Last year, Kimmel's set surfaced on YouTube, but until the same happens for his latest, a few choice sound bites (paraphrased a bit, seeing as I was too busy noshing on free popcorn to break out the Tandy recorder):• "ABC has decided on an end date for Lost. And I hear CBS is doing the same thing for Katie Couric."• "There are good shows that get bad ratings, bad shows that get good ratings... There's NCIS...." (I don't know what he meant exactly, but it was funny.)• "Last year, we promised you a sitcom starring Mick Jagger. You knew we were bulls---ting, right? I mean... It's Mick Jagger."• Regarding the big news in TV this week: "Law...
read more
