Katie Couric will host and produce a syndicated national one-hour daily daytime show premiering in September 2012. It will air at 3 p.m. on the eight ABC O&Os, which account for 23% U.S. household coverage. In addition, she will also join the ABC News team.
Disney/ABC Bringing Couric To Syndication
As expected, Disney/ABC Television Group today announced a multi-year deal with former CBS News anchor and Today Show personality Katie Couric to host and produce her own nationally syndicated talk show starting in September 2012. Couric will also join the ABC News team.
The yet-to-be-named show has already been cleared at 3 p.m. on the eight ABC O&Os in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh/Durham and Fresno, which represent nearly 23% of the nation’s TV households.
Disney/ABC also said it plans to return the 3 p.m. slot, the last hour of its daytime network block, to affiliates no earlier than September 2012, making room for them to pick up the Couric show at that time.
Disney/ABC said the ABC network “continues to support” General Hospital, which now airs at 3 p.m., and still plans to launch The Chew in September of this year and The Revolution in January 2012. But something will have to give, since that’s three shows now vying for just two slots — the two opened up by the cancellation of One Life To Live and All My Children.
The deal reunites Couric with former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, with whom she worked at Today. Zucker will be an executive producer with Couric, which will be based in New York and produced in conjunction with Disney/ABC.
In making the announcement, Anne Sweeney, president, Disney/ABC Television Group, said: “Katie Couric is one of television’s iconic figures and we are thrilled to have forged such an exciting partnership with her. We look forward to having Katie join the best News team in the business, and to working with her to create a dynamic and successful talk show franchise.”
Ms. Couric added: “I’m very happy to be returning to the network where I began my career as a desk assistant in 1979. It is tremendously exciting to have the creative freedom to develop my own show with Anne Sweeney, the Disney/ABC TV Group and Jeff, and to contribute to such a vibrant, innovative news division. I can’t wait to be part of this incredibly talented, visionary team.”
“It was a blast working with Katie at Today and I’m excited to do it again,” said Zucker. “And besides, it should be more fun spending time with Katie at 3 or 4 in the afternoon than at 3 or 4 in the morning.”
In addition to hosting the new syndicated program, Couric will join the ABC News team, contributing to all programs and platforms.
Comments (16)
Wagner Pereira says:
June 6, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Interesting as KABC-DT paid a fortune for Dr. Oz to take it from Fox for the 3pm hour as a lead in to its #1 rated Newscast and supposedly promised it clearance there.
Catherine Lucey says:
June 6, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Katie will air at 2 PM on KABC and KGO. Dr. Oz is safe and is a two-year deal anyway.
Wagner Pereira says:
June 6, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Then the story is reported wrong and is NOT clearing at all 8 ABC O&O stations at 3pm,
Robert Crookham says:
June 6, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Stories like this are always written with references to Eastern time–in daytime, the rest of the country is an hour earlier, including the Pacific time zone. So the reference to 3PM Eastern is the same as 2PM in San Francisco and LA. A real “Insider” would know that.
Kevin Wright says:
June 6, 2011 at 5:23 pm
…and don’t forget Denver, Boise and Salt Lake City. Mountain Time always gets forgotten. But you’re right – 2 PM Local, 3 PM ET. GH fans are now hoping The Chew has a “reversal of fortune” a la Nathan’s OR The Revolution has a revolt of its own.
Catherine Lucey says:
June 6, 2011 at 5:58 pm
GH is toast.
len Kubas says:
June 6, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Are you sure? Last time I checked, 3 p.m. eastern was noon SF, and the same time in LA. Even as the transition to daylight savings time wipes across the continent, this doesn’t change.
Kevin Wright says:
June 6, 2011 at 6:38 pm
You’ve missed the point. We’re talking network scheduling here. Daytime shows, by and large, air one hour later by the clock in the Eastern time zone than it does everywhere else. GH, for instance, airs at 3 PM ET, but in all other time zones it airs at 2 PM Local Time (local variations allowing).
Catherine Lucey says:
June 6, 2011 at 6:43 pm
then by that logic primetime would start at 5 PM in the west. look, the salient point isn’t 3 PM – that’s the time period in ET, which is what is always listed – the point is that the last hour of ABC daytime is being returned to stations for the show (in theory – they don’t have to buy it of course). The last hour is 3 PM ET and 2 PM everywhere else.
len Kubas says:
June 6, 2011 at 7:55 pm
You’re talking about the Central time zone, Salt Lake City, a few cities in Arizona, maybe another market, not the Pacific Time zone. I’m betting you don’t spend much time West of the Hudson.
Wagner Pereira says:
June 6, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Not true. Regis and Kelly is on at 9AM on WABC and KABC.
len Kubas says:
June 6, 2011 at 11:59 pm
who said that wasn’t the case? 9:00 a.m. start is actually contractual with that show.
Rachel Barash says:
June 6, 2011 at 2:40 pm
If ABC doesn’t keep Katie exposed via specials/news reporting et no one will remember who she is/was in 15 months. KC is no Oprah or Ellen so, it will be interesting to see what kind of a format she will have – maybe some daily readings from SP.
len Kubas says:
June 6, 2011 at 4:09 pm
who the heck is Ellen? She peaked with “Mr. Wrong.”
Hope Yen and Charles Babington says:
June 6, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Then there’s Phoenix and Tucson. AZ stands alone in the Continental US as staying with Mountain STANDARD Time. So in the spring, summer and fall, Arizonans are on the same time as the Pacific Time Zone. BUT, not in TV land! Their prime is 7-10PM, so their servers replay the east coast feeds TWO hours later, as opposed to the Mountain DAYLIGHT stations that delay prime and some daytime products by one hour. BTW, never having done a tour of duty with anything NBC, I do recall when NBC launched its Ku band network feeds, there was talk about having FOUR feeds, E. C, M and Pacific. True?
len Kubas says:
June 7, 2011 at 12:00 am
ISTR a Denver turnaround for NBC (no tour there) that I think went away went they went to sat.