Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
Katie Couric has signed a multi-year, multi-platform agreement with ABC Television group, the company announced today.
Under the deal, Couric will host and produce a now-untitled nationally syndicated talk show that will premiere in September 2012, and will also join the ABC News team.
Additionally, Couric will reunite with Jeff Zucker, the former NBC-Universal topper who will executive produce her new talk show that will be based in New York. Zucker exec produced Today when Couric was the co-anchor.
“I’m very happy to be returning to the network where I began my career as a desk assistant in 1979,” Couric said in a statement. “It is tremendously exciting to have the creative freedom to develop my own show.”
Already, eight of the ABC-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh/Durham and Fresno, which represent nearly 23% of the nation’s TV households, have already cleared Couric’s new show in the 3:00 p.m. time slot. As part of the announcement, ABC will return the last hour of its daytime network block to affiliates no earlier than September 2012, but says it continues to support General Hospital. (GH typically runs in that last hour, which is either 2 p.m. or 3 p.m.) It plans to launch The Chew in September of this year and The Revolution in January 2012.
For more on ABC daytime:
ABC cancels All My Children and One Life to Live, replaces them with lifestyle shows
Like sand through an hour glass, so are the days…of General Hospital.
3 pm? What will I do without my “inside edition”?
Let the comparisons begin. Katie should strive for something different
because she will never be Oprah.
ANOTHER talk show? How many talk shows have tried and failed in the last several years? For every Oprah and Ellen and Dave there is a Tempestt, Gabrielle or Bonnie. There are only so many guests to go around and so many topics to cover.
That is exactly what I was thinking MissMel. Do we really need ANOTHER talk show? Is she really going to bring something new to the table?
Eric you’re a little memfniorsid in how tv ratings work. Ratings are measured for every quarter hour (15 min) A person has to be on a show/channel for at least 7 min inside that quarter hour for the show/channel to get credit for the rating. So if The Chew does run a minute or two over, it is not gaining any ratings from OLTL. On the other hand,they may be running over into the hour to catch people turning to OLTL to expose them to The Chew and get them to sample The Chew.I am a OLTL fan, but the facts are clear that The Chew is a much better profit center for ABC. But we all know profit doesn’t always equally quality.
That is exactly my fear. A talk show that may last a negligible amount of time will boot a show that has been on the air for 40 plus years.
Can ABC just be honest? The daytime audience is the same, but it’s cheaper to run a talk show, even with Katie $$s, than a soap opera.
Goodbye General Hospital! At least you have another year and change to get your act together and go out right.
Finally GH will die and I can have take the DVR back from my wife.
I’m sure her new talk show will last about as long as Jane Pauley’s did….
GH has nothing to do with a hospital these days. Why don’t they just call it ‘GH’? Or “Luke’s Town”?
How about Sonny’s town or Mobville, because Luke is on vacation most of the time.
Well, when Luke IS in town, he’s running down and killing his grandson. So, maybe he should be out of town…for the rest of GH’s run. Former (thank goodness) head writers Bob Guza has decimated the history of GH to the point of no return. He’s killed of most of the Quartermaines, made Laura a drooling catatonic psych patient, given Sonny’s kids the run of the PC, had Michael get raped in prison (and fall in love with a stripper!), Lucky dated and married a leprechaun (don’t ask!), Lisa the loon outsmarts even the best of the PC Police Dept, and Jax is leaving the show a shadow of his former dynamic self. Not to mention how GH botched Brenda’s return. I loved Brenda but GH made her a bratty whiny mess, but that is the way Guza wrote the women of GH. At this point, I don’t think Garin Wolf can save GH as the new head writer. It’s not Katie Courics fault. It’s ABC and Brian Frons who deserve the credit when all of these new shows flop. Even though I’m over GH personally, I will relish with glee the horrid ratings they will get. Knowing the mindset at ABC, Frons will be PROMOTED!!!
THIS is why soaps are getting cancelled? Who the H-E-double- hockey-sticks wants to see this old hag on daytime? We didn’t like her on the evening news and we don’t like her in general. Quit ruining daytime TV!
Who wants to watch over acting on TV like they do on every soap.
Janet you were great on Three’s Company.
lol’ing at pie thrower!
lol’ing @pie thrower!
Dammit Janet!
Katie is HOT!!!!!
God, another soap bites the dust. What’s next? Y&R? Networks have no loyalty to their viewers. Nobody gives an F what Katie Couric has to say. She’s milquetoast.
What is milquetoast?
This really doesn’t deserve a comment, but here goes… GOOGLE it, you slacker!
What are you thinking ABC??? Katie is no substitute for Oprah! Another boring talk show I won’t be watching, because ABC/Disney is killing the soaps I have been watching for decades, just to put on cheap shows. I need a little escapism, life is tough enough. Why doesn’t she take 4 o’clock slot? We don’t need 3 hours of local news! I hope they move General Hospital to another time slot, if not I’m done with ABC.
God, you soap people are whiners
Poor GH…this doesn’t look good for them. This is the drip drip effect. They are not ready to say that GH is being cancelled, so they announce things bit by bit that give that impression. So sad for all those who work on that show. I have never found Katie Couric interesting so any talk show she is offering has little interest for me.
I *have* to watch the Super Bowl my grandson lives with me and is a huge NO Saints fan and I am thhoougrly disgusted by the fact that we will be subjected to FotF’s lying propaganda. How do I explain this to my grandson? He’s is Autistic and still trusts people to be honest and straight-forward. Explaining to him that people lie and do bad things has been so hard on both of us. Explaining to him that advertisers only want him to spend money or do something else that he would not do if he thought about it carefully was bad enough. All of the living and several of the deceased women in my family have had abortions. If these reactionary theocrats ever come to power, we will be imprisoned at best. Theocrats of whatever religion are a clear and present danger to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of the rest of us. I fear them.
I have no interest in a Katie Couric talk show. She has never interested me.
I have no interest in General Hospital. That show has never had my interest.
Yawn. Neither is interesting.
Break up with Brendan and maybe we’ll start caring about your opinion, Rachel.
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another soap bits the dust. Now all of you can get off you a** and do something productive. Like exercise,SPEND TIME WITH YOU FAMILY.
Or troll websites trying to piss people off?
Keep working on learning English, “another.” You’re getting there.
One wishes the best in any enterprise but not at the cost of others. ABC needs to be honest about its plans for GENERAL HOSPITAL if it wants to avoid the enmity of viewers. The web bungled its handling of ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE. I am sad to see the genre fade for programs so generic and repetitive.
Oh please, the genre faded due to changing viewer habits compounded by some really bad writing and even worse acting. GH has been garbage for close to 15 years. It’s been dead long before the official cancellation!
The only person who can save it is former Executive producer Wendy Riche. Her years of producing, 1991-2000 were some of the best…next to Luke & Laura. I loved the whole Karen/Jagger/Brenda triangle! Wendy we miss you!!!!!!!