A Sweetheart Deal

I don't remember the last time I watched the Today show. If I had to guess, I'd say it's been five years or more. So when the news hit that Katie Couric (I hope that's how she spells her name, cause I'm not going to take the time to look it up) is giving up her day job for an evening job, it didn't bring tears of joy, nor sorrow.

It did, however, briefly cause my eyebrows to climb my forehead and tickle my noggin.

Couric has been co-anchoring the morning news and entertainment show for 15 years. Assuming that she has a 90 percent attendance record, that's more than 3,500 days in front of the dawn's early lights. As she jokingly admitted, that represents "179 hairstyles."

When it comes to women on television, Couric probably ranks third behind Oprah and Barbara Walters in recognition and popularity. I've never seen a poll about such things (I'm sure it exists somewhere), but I can imagine Katie winning an "America's News Sweetheart" award. Her appeal has always been the ability to talk goofy in one segment, and guerilla warfare the next.

I'm sure she would say that her fame has come with a pricetag. It sure has. NBC pays Couric about $15 million a year to sit in front of Rockefeller Square for a couple of hours every weekday. But that's chump change ... her boss apparantly dangled another five mill to get her to stay. And why not? The Today show is a ratings hog -- #1 in its time slot for 10 years running, without exception. That's even more dominating than New York's other famed dynasty, the Yankees.

Now Couric takes her ball to a new playground (CBS) and timeslot (the Evening News). "America's News Sweetheart" will occupy the chair once filled by Walter Cronkite (maybe the most beloved newsman of all time) and Dan Rather (not so much loved, especially if your last name is Bush). She becomes the first woman to solo anchor the evening news on a Big Three network.

CBS News has languished in third place for many years. Will Couric take it to the promised land? Hard to say, really. The evening news for the networks is all about ratings, advertising dollars ... enticing American's to settle in for an entire evening of programming. What, you thought it was about news? Shame on you.

The television landscape has changed remarkably during the last 20 years. None of the networks garner ratings like they did in previous decades. There are too many television news sources now -- too many news sources, period. And American's don't trust the news, or the newsmakers, like they used to. "Burn us once, shame on us, but burn us twice ...."

Katie will make good television, won't she? She's made good television for 15 years. You could fairly say that she's earned her chance. And, she certainly is making television history.

But I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that she will change television, or news reporting. In the end, she is what she is -- a pretty face, a good teleprompter reader, a capable interviewer, making $15 million a year to smile and tell us "That's the way it is." Perhaps that is enough, I suppose, in 21st century America.