Katie Couric may exit CBS News before contract ends, WSJ reports

[onehandle]

Source: Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed CBS News executives and people close to Katie Couric, said on Wednesday she could leave her job as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" well before her contract expires in 2011.

CBS and Couric both issued statements downplaying the Journal story while stopping short of an outright denial.

The report comes as CBS continues to lag in third place in the network news ratings, behind NBC and ABC, 19 months after Couric's much ballyhooed debut as the first woman solo anchor of a major U.S. evening newscast -- for a salary reportedly worth $15 million a year.

Couric, 51, the former co-host of NBC's top-rated morning show "Today," may leave the CBS as early as next January, soon after the U.S. presidential inauguration, the Journal said in its online edition.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080410/tv_nm/couric_dc

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The old heave-ho for the embarrassment sitting in Walter Cronkite's seat

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Oh dear.

How will I ever sleep tonight?

[demasiado]

13. Couric is famous for soft-ball interviews

Specially when talking to Republican public figures such as Petraeus and others. Let her leave.

[OhioChick]

2. ......

:nopity:

[Dulcinea]

28. Bring back Bob Schieffer!

He's a great anchor. He should've gotten the job in the first place!

[stubtoe]

39. I like Bob too. n/t

[Botany]

3. Bring on Lara Logan

she is great .... real news too

[raystorm7]

12. Agreed. Two Women that would have done the job right and brought in an audience...

Smart, educated, no nonsense reporting, naturally beautiful inside and out, and know WTF they are talking about.

[sce56]

19. Sorry you will never see Christain as a anchor heck if the powers in DC had their way

She'd be in Gitmo! She has been squelched due to her fair and objective reporting which is no longer aired in the US!

[Uncle Joe]

41. I agree on both counts.

:thumbsup:

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. I hope the brainiac that hired her for the job is let go as well

What a dumbass! I wouldn't trust Couric to tell me what planet we are living on.

[Melynn]

18. Everybody knew Couric was wrong for that job

It surely was a dumb-ass that hired Couric for the anchor's chair. And pay her 15 million dollars per year! Unbelievably stupid.

[rurallib]

5. I heard Chris Matthews is available this June

Fate?

[Berry Cool]

29. Tweety?!? Who wouldn't know when it was time for a commercial without Keith Olbermann telling him?

Good luck with that.

[aquart]

6. Does this go with the outsourcing to CNN story?

Or they finally agree with me about the perky one?

[Clear Blue Sky]

7. Boo hoo. I'm so sad...

[ckramer]

8. I would like to see Katie go back to "TodayShow" in the morning

She shouldn't have left in the first place.

I dislike all women there except Ann Curry.

Now they're using the ugly Kathie Lee. What a bad choice.

The quality of Today Show went down hill since Katie left.

[provis99]

9. good riddance

she was a horrible anchor, and a joke as a news reporter.

[bellasgrams]

17. I never watch CBS News anymore. I liked Dan Rather and I

think he got a raw deal. There were others within their network I would have watched but not Katie.

[ToughLuck]

10. 15 million??? good Lord!

[Pastiche423]

11. January 2009

looks like it's going to be one hell of a month - in the right direction, at last.

[Javaman]

14. I hear that MTV is looking for new VJ's. nt

[gauguin57]

15. K-K-K-Katie ... don't let the k-k-k-kitchen door hit you on the k-k-k-keister

on the way out.

(maybe you have to be old to know that song?)

[Hardrada]

26. I know that song but haven't heard anyone sing it since 1956 or so.

Sort of like "Yes, we have no bananas!" I sing that one now and then but I don't know the whole song. Anyone?

[jdadd]

31. Here ya go....

There's a fruit store on our street
It's run by a Greek.
And he keeps good things to eat
But you should hear him speak!

When you ask him anything, he never answers "no".
He just "yes"es you to death,
And as he takes your dough, he tells you...

"Yes! We have no bananas
We have no bananas today!!
We have string beans and onions, cabBAges and scallions
And all kinds of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned toMAHto
A Long Island poTAHto, but

Yes! We have no bananas
We have no bananas today!"

Business got so good for him that he wrote home today,
"Send me Pete and Nick and Jim; I need help right away."
When he got them in the store, there was fun, you bet.
Someone asked for "sparrow grass"
and then the whole quartet
All answered:

"Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today.
Just try those coconuts
Those wall-nuts and doughnuts
There ain't many nuts like they.
We'll sell you two kinds of red herring,
Dark brown, and ball-bearing.
But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today."

[Hardrada]

40. Thanks! Basically all I knew was the refrain.

[Purveyor]

16. And CBS News proclaims..."Yes, there is a God"!!! eom

[Frank Booth]

20. They should bring Dan back.

But of course they won't.

They'll probably give it to some vapid blowhard like Anderson Cooper.

[MarkInLA]

22. ain't it the truth

"AC" is the most overrated news presenter currently on television. What a bum deal Aaron Brown got when CNN booted him and replaced him with Cooper.

I cringe when I hear people say that they like AC because "he's so cute". Christ. I don't even find him attractive.

[Zachstar]

21. Bring back Dan!!!!!

I want my RATHERISMS!!!

[MarkInLA]

23. Maybe Star Jones could replace her...lol...just kidding (n/t)

[depakid]

27. I was thinking Regis....

[Savannah_H]

24. adios katie

where will she go?
what will she do?

[Golden Raisin]

25. It's the end of Western civilization!

Or perhaps the vengeance of Ed Murrow. Couric's hiring and tenure at CBS was a giant mistake from Day One.

[chapel hill dem]

30. By the end of the day, I already know the major news stories from the net.

I am also impatient. I like to get the news I want when I want it and not wait for 20 minutes before a news story of interest comes up in their rotation.

Why watch the evening news at all?

[underpants]

32. Why, because you can get information on the war and everything else in 90 second bites

and anything related to the elderly gets full expanded discussion

:eyes:

I have no idea why someone would watch the news either and I used to be a network news DAILY viewer, until about 4 years ago.

[TNOE]

33. I doubt Dan Rather

would ever return. As for me - I have not - or will ever - watch CBS for what they did to Dan Rather. Let em stay dead last. I can't imagine who they could get that would make me watch - except for maybe Phil Donahue.

[Kolesar]

34. Get Olbermann ... eom

[TNOE]

35. Except I llike KO

right where he is - on MSNBC for 1 hour - 3 times a day.

[Kolesar]

36. Not a perfect fit. He's too good at satirizing the media and punching holes in the RWers

If you have Dish Network, you have to go "up" to an expensive programming package to get MSNBC. I looked into it and am stuck with Time Wanker cable for the moment.

[jackster]

37. don't let the door hit you on the way out Katie....

I used to enjoy her light hearted banter on the Today show, but it grew old very quickly. And she's a joke at CBS. Hard news is not her forte.

[samsingh]

38. can't be too soon