Couric makes it official

Time and again over the past 15 years, NBC Today anchor Katie Couric has shown that she has that amalgam of grace, humor, smarts and intuition that it takes to be the biggest star in television news.

But Wednesday on Today, Couric, 49, said she was relying on her "heart and gut, which have served me well in the past," to announce her biggest career challenge yet: moving to CBS to become anchor of The CBS Evening News and a regular on 60 Minutes.

The woman who once allowed Today viewers to see a tour of her colon becomes the first solo female anchor in broadcast news in September.

It's a historic move on an evening newscast that has been a perennial also-ran for years but that in the past year has gained viewers as competitors at ABC and NBC have lost them.

"She's a total game changer," Evening News producer Rome Hartman said. "The thing that really sets her apart, the big reason that everybody watches her and why she has had so much success, is that viewers can imagine having a cup of coffee with her, of sitting on a playground and watching their kids on the jungle gym. She's not acting. She's not playing a role. She is what she is."

Her move comes as CBS News continues to rebound from a scandal in 2004 over a story on President Bush's military career, attracting younger viewers even as the Web and other media pose the stiffest challenge yet to network newscasts, which have hemorrhaged millions of viewers in the past decade.

"The time is right," said CBS 48 Hours producer Susan Zirinsky, a friend of Couric's who was the basis of the Holly Hunter character in the 1986 film Broadcast News. "The time has been right for quite a while now, but we didn't have the right woman. Now we do. Katie has so earned her journalistic stripes."

Wednesday's much-anticipated announcement played out with humor and emotion during the second half-hour on Today as co-anchor Matt Lauer turned to Couric, who was dressed in a white paintsuit with a peach top.

"Anything new?" he asked.

With that, Couric -- improvising on a TelePrompter script -- announced that she'll leave NBC at the end of May. She said it had been a tough call because of her close ties to NBC, where she began as a Pentagon correspondent in 1989.

"I don't know the vast majority of you personally, and it may sound kind of corny, but I really feel as if we've become friends through the years. And you've been with me during a lot of good times and some very difficult ones," Couric said to the viewing audience. "I can't tell you how grateful I am."

She also cited "my relationship with the people on this wonderful show. ... The notion that we're a family is not just some cheesy promotional device. I really care deeply about the people here."

Then, turning to Lauer, Couric said that "once in a while we get on each other's nerves -- well, he gets on my nerves! -- (but) just as Dorothy said to the Scarecrow, 'I think I'll miss you most of all.'"

Once she ended her remarks, Lauer, ever the straight man to her on-air zaniness, quipped, "Also coming up in this half hour..." Cast and crew exploded in laughter.

A few minutes later, weatherman Al Roker joked, "Hell just froze over." Newsreader Ann Curry (whom Couric had called and awakened Tuesday night to break the news) said she felt as if "my sister is going off to college."

Lauer, putting his hand on Couric's knee, said Today would give her a fine on-air sendoff.

"Get your hand off my knee!" Couric said.

"I can't wait to see Bob Schieffer do that," Roker joked, referring to CBS' interim Evening News anchor, who has openly touted Couric.

"I think we're going to love Katie, and I think Katie's going to love us," Schieffer said Wednesday. Said ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas: "It's great to welcome another woman to the evening news. Katie is a first-rate journalist. The competition will make all of us even better." And NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams said, "While I am losing her as an NBC News colleague, I am gaining an able new competitor."

Wednesday's announcement followed a yearlong courtship by CBS chief Leslie Moonves, who had tried five years ago to lure Couric to the CBS anchor chair and replace Dan Rather, who ultimately stepped down in March 2005. (Rather had no immediate comment Wednesday.)

This time, through a series of meetings, most recently at his Manhattan apartment, Mooves and Couric agreed she'd join the network at a salary said to be roughly equal to the $15 million a year she now makes as the USA's highest-paid network news anchor.

"With this move, our news division takes yet another giant leap forward," Moonves said in a statement. "Katie is one of the best in the business. ... Seasoned broadcasters who are at once respected, charismatic and known throughout this country and beyond are increasingly important in this fragmented media landscape."

But business is business, and her contract with NBC runs until May 31. As such, NBC does not plan to allow her to address CBS advertisers at the annual presentations of network fall schedules in May.

What next for NBC?

Meredith Vieira, host of ABC's The View and a former 60 Minutes correspondent, has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Couric on Today. NBC won't confirm Vieira as its choice but said that an anchor change will be announced soon.

Author Gail Sheehy said on CNN that Couric can now return to being the "tenacious" reporter rather than the "chatty Cathy" she now is on Today, the top-rated morning news show for a record 10 years.

But Myrna Blyth, author of the 2004 book Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness -- and Liberalism -- to the Women of America, said: "I don't think this is so much 'Gee, great for women.' This is great for stars. This is about celebrities in the news; this isn't about women. This is about a star getting a news show. Really, are women's lives going to change because of Katie Couric? I think it will be interesting."

60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney rained on Couric's parade, saying that although she is "a good person, I don't think people at CBS News are enthusiastic about having her here. She doesn't fit the image that we have of ourselves, as a hard-news operation, a Walter Cronkite kind of news operation."

Six stories for '60 Minutes'

Rooney's boss, 60 Minutes producer Jeff Fager, has an entirely different take. "I can only see the upside here. She's had an amazing run in the morning, and she's earned this honor. And it proves those who say network evening news is on the way out are wrong again. She's about the biggest star in broadcasting, and she's taking over the News. That says it all."

Couric, whose contract with CBS begins June 1, will report at least six stories for 60 Minutes next season. She joins the newsmagazine's roster just days after correspondent Mike Wallace announced that this is his last season. "She's a perfect fit," Fager said. "She can conduct an interview better than almost anyone in the business. It's why (former 60 Minutes chief) Don Hewitt tried to get her long ago."

Couric's defection marks a big loss for NBC Universal television group chief Jeff Zucker, Couric's onetime producer at Today, who in an interview called Wednesday a "bittersweet day" for him personally and professionally.

"She is as important as anyone in NBC's history, and obviously we're sorry to see her go, but I completely understand why she wants to," Zucker said. With Williams in first place at Nightly News, "we were not in a position to offer her that. It was as simple as that."

He downplayed the loss of Couric on Today, noting that she had the longest tenure of any Today show anchor, and he never thought she'd stay for 15 years. Today, he said, has "always been bigger than any of its anchors" and survived when predecessors such as Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel moved on. "Great people get great jobs, and Katie is a hall of famer," Zucker said.

Tim Spengler, chief TV ad buyer at Initiative Media, said NBC "has been successful finding the right combinations on Today more times than not. If the chemistry is there, there's no reason to think they can't continue their No. 1 position." And, he said, "there's no reason to assume that just because Katie is leaving that ratings will go down," noting that when Gumbel left to join CBS's The Early Show, ratings for Today went up.

"America is finally ready" for a solo female anchor, said Erik Sorenson, who produced Rather on the Evening News when he was paired with Connie Chung in the '90s. "We've had women running Fortune 500 companies, writing Supreme Court decisions, and on TV there's even a woman running the country. And in all the commotion over the News, we shouldn't lose sight of the big boost she can provide for a graying 60 Minutes."

Moonves has said he wants to get away from the authoritative "voice of God" anchor format, but what the News will look like under Couric remains to be seen. "I know she has a million ideas," Hartman said.

Andrew Donchin, a national broadcast buyer at Carat USA, said Couric may help bring in some younger viewers who are loyal to Katie. "She's going to instill a lot of curiosity and excitement. But I don't know if it's going to translate into any significant ratings gains."

But Stacey Lynn Koerner, president of the consumer experience practice at Interpublic Media, says Couric is a "different personality than the typical evening news anchor and will give a more emotional connection to the news. She has the capability to pull viewers from other network newscasts and bring in people who don't typically watch the evening news."

Contributing: Gary Levin

and Ann Oldenburg

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