Katie Couric's out at Today; Meredith Vieira in?
Ending months of speculation, Katie Couric marked her 15th anniversary on Today by announcing on Wednesday morning that she is leaving NBC's morning news program. "After listening to my heart and my gut, I've decided I'll be leaving at the end of May," she said on air. The longest-serving anchor in Today history, Couric is expected to fill the anchor chair at CBS Evening News, in a deal the Wall Street Journal says will also get her face time on 60 Minutes, as well as her own documentary crew, and fetch her a cool $15 million a year. "Sometimes change is a good thing," Couric told viewers. "Although it may be terrifying to get out of your comfort zone, it's very exciting to start a new chapter in your life." As for her Today successor, a source at The View tells the New York Daily News that it's all but a done deal that Meredith Vieira will fill the vacancy.
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Russ Mitchell has been named permanent anchor of the Sunday edition of CBS Evening News.... Per Variety, Turner Classic Movies is developing a one-hour contemporized version of The Dick Cavett Show, to debut in September with a Mel Brooks sit-down.... People are bananas for the big guy: First-week DVD sales for King Kong topped 6.5 million, the best performance in Universal Studios history.... Brokeback Mountain hits video stores today, aka Heath Ledger's birthday. All together now: "I wish I knew how to quit butter-cream frosting!"
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The New York Post, which reported last week that Today cohost Katie Couric is thisclose to deciding to grab the brassier ring as anchor of CBS Evening News, now is offering a when: after the conclusion of May sweeps. "[May 26] is the last day of her [NBC] contract," an insider tells the paper, "so if she was leaving, [that timetable] would make sense."
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Meredith Vieira somewhat skirted talk that she may replace Katie Couric on NBC's Today should the perky pixie get recruited to anchor CBS Evening News. Acknowledging that her deal with The View is up in August, she told CNN's Showbiz Tonight on Wednesday, "I never predict what's going to happen next, because my career has been so bizarre." As bizarre as there being only two Emmy nominees in the game-show categories?
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Bob Schieffer, CBS
If you already work for CBS News, don't count on getting the CBS Evening News anchor job.
CBS News president Sean McManus told reporters at the Television Critics Association winter press tour Wednesday that insiders at the network are not high on his list. Of course, it's been widely reported that the network wants to pursue Katie Couric, coanchor of NBC's Today, whose contract is up in May. But even if she decides to stay put at NBC, McManus said he's more likely to go with an outsider for the anchor job.
"That's probably the case," he said.
Why? "I'm not sure we have anyone who has the qualifications that the anchor should have," he says. "Part of that may be that there hasn't been quite enough emphasis on developing the next anchor." While there are many capable correspondents and substitute anchors at CBS, McManus added, none have the kind of high profile that would make them an obvious choice for the viewers.
Oddly enough,
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ABC has officially named hottie Elizabeth Vargas and, um, the neatly coiffed Bob Woodruff coanchors of World News Tonight, for which they have been the primary substitutes since Peter Jennings vacated the post months prior to his passing. The Eye Network, meanwhile, is still angling to steal Today's Katie Couric to front CBS Evening News, provided that she somehow can come away unscathed from Macy'sM&MBalloonGate.
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Sean McManus
As a boy, Sean McManus stood nearby as his sportscaster father, Jim McKay, reported live on the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. ABC Sports president Roone Arledge was overseeing the network's extraordinary coverage and would eventually take over the network's news division, building it into an industry leader. So it was hard not to refer to Arledge when McManus, president of CBS Sports since 1996, added CBS News to his portfolio. He takes over for Andrew Heyward on Nov. 7. The Biz recently spoke to McManus about the challenges he faces in his new job.
TVGuide.com: You must be pleased with the comparisons to Roone Arledge, especially because he and your father put ABC News on the map with the Munich coverage.Sean McManus: The biggest event in my father's professional career happened to be a news event, not a sports event, and I was lucky enough to spend that entire period in the stud
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