"I've always tried to stay true to my authentic self." -- Katie Couric
Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric (born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist, currently the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, a correspondent for 60 Minutes, and host of @katiecouric (her twitter handle), a webshow on CBSNews.com. She is the first solo female anchor of a weekday evening news program on one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks. Before CBS, she was a co-host of NBC's Today, a position she held from 1991 until 2006.
"A lot people I know - it drives them crazy when they're watching, to see the people with their signs and waving, but there's something that's very inclusive about it.""All three networks have always had a morning show but now cable of course is taking some of that audience away and a variety of other things, probably the Internet as well.""And I've always - the competition is one aspect of the job, but I think if you're too busy worrying about the competition, you don't focus enough on what you're doing.""And they like being able to turn on the television day in and day out to see someone that they know and they feel comfortable with and trust hopefully and respect even.""At least for me personally, I've always tried to do a really good job every day, with each interview, and treat each interview seriously, and make the person I'm speaking with feel comfortable, hopefully make it an ideal experience.""But of course when people watch morning television, Terry, it's a very different animal. You know, they're running around, they're getting their kids ready for school, they're probably doing eight million things, they're brushing their teeth.""But, you know, they don't enjoy the dinner hour together. It's just not as much of a ritual at night and it's interesting. I think the ritual is taking place perhaps more in the morning.""He was always sort of a scrappy little kid wasn't he? A bit of a fighter?""He would take the blow so you didn't have to.""I beg. I call. I badger. I cajole. Part of the secret is everyone has fun and that's really motivating.""I could announce one morning that the world was going to blow up in three hours and people would be calling in about my hair!""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. I can't tell you how grateful I am.""I feel like a human pinata. The disappointing thing is, no candy is going to spill out.""I know there's a great deal of speculation, and while I appreciate the interest, kind of, my contract ends in May and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I'm fortunate to have a couple of opportunities to think long and hard about.""I think sometimes people project things on you, but I'm trying to handle everything that's happened to me with a certain amount of grace, dignity and good manners. You just can't necessarily win all the time.""If I hear the word 'perky' again, I'll puke.""Now, if they're there to talk about something specifically, and I determine through my own editorial judgment, that another area isn't germane, or isn't an important part of it, that's something else. But we never agree to anything in advance, absolutely not.""Obviously, people in Texas have big hearts.""So I don't really focus too much on that, and I think it's dangerous if your goal in life is to get the other guy, then you're not going to be doing a really quality job yourself.""Sometimes I think change is a good thing.""That studies have shown that more people are getting up earlier, they're getting their news earlier. They're getting less sleep, getting up at earlier hours.""They see us interacting with people, they see us doing serious interviews, they see us having fun, and when you're conversing with someone, you get a much clearer impression of who that person is than if they are just reading into a news piece.""You can't please everyone, and you can't make everyone like you.""You know, you've got serious pieces, you've got light pieces, you've got cooking segments, you've got health-related topics, so it's not as if they've had a unique personality from the get-go.""You see, that's the problem I have with "you people.""
Couric was born in Arlington, Virginia, the daughter of Elinor Tullie (née Hene), a homemaker and part-time writer, and John Martin Couric Jr., a public relations executive and news editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the United Press in Washington, D.C. Her mother was Jewish, but Couric was raised Episcopalian. Couric's maternal grandparents, Bert Hene and Clara L. Froshin, were the children of Jewish immigrants from Germany. In a report for Today, she traced her paternal ancestry back to a French orphan who immigrated to the U.S. in the nineteenth century and became a broker in the cotton business.
Couric attended Arlington, Virginia public schools: Jamestown Elementary, Williamsburg Junior High, and Yorktown High School and was a cheerleader. As a high school student, she was an intern at Washington, DC all-news radio station WAVA. She enrolled at her father's alma mater, the University of Virginia, in 1975 and was a Delta Delta Delta sorority sister. Couric served in several positions at UVA's award-winning daily newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. During her third year at UVA, Couric was chosen to live as Head Resident of The Lawn, the heart of Thomas Jefferson's academical village. She graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in English with a focus on American Studies.
Couric's first job was at the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C., later joining CNN as an assignment editor. Between 1984 and 1986, she worked as a general-assignment reporter for WTVJ in Miami, Florida. During the following two years, she reported for WRC-TV, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Washington, D.C., work which earned her an Associated Press award and an Emmy.
NBC
Couric joined NBC News in 1989 as Deputy Pentagon Correspondent. From 1989 to 1991, Couric was an anchor substitute and filled in for Bryant Gumbel as host of Today, Jane Pauley, and Deborah Norville as co-anchor of Today, Garrick Utley, Mary Alice Williams, and Maria Shriver as co-host of Sunday Today, and John Palmer, Norville, and Faith Daniels as anchor of the former NBC News program NBC News at Sunrise. She also subbed for Daniels, Norville, and John Palmer as the news anchor on Today'.
Today (1991—2006)
In 1989, Couric joined Today as national political correspondent, becoming a substitute co-host in February 1991 when Norville had a baby. Norville did not return and Couric became permanent co-anchor on April 5, 1991. In 1994, she became co-anchor of Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric...an evening time weekly TV newsmagazine with Tom Brokaw...which was later canceled and folded into part of Dateline NBC, where her reports appeared regularly and she was named contributing anchor. She remained at Today and NBC News until May 31, 2006, when she announced that she would be going to CBS to anchor the CBS Evening News, becoming the first solo female anchor of the "big three" weekday nightly news broadcasts.
Katie Couric has filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. Couric has also filled in for Maria Shriver on the Sunday Edition of NBC Nightly News from 1989-1993.
Couric hosted or worked on a number of news specials, like Everybody's Business: America's Children in 1995. Similar entertainment specials were Legend to Legend Night: A Celebrity Cavalcade in 1993, and Harry Potter: Behind the Magic in 2001. Couric has also co-hosted the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. She has broadcast with Bob Costas, beginning with the 2000 Summer Olympics. She did not co-host the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin, Italy because of a scheduling conflict with a live taping of Today. Brian Williams co-hosted with Bob Costas instead.
Couric has interviewed many international political figures and celebrities during her career, including Presidents Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and First Lady Barbara Bush. John F. Kennedy Jr. gave Couric his first and last interviews. Couric has won multiple television reporting awards through her career, including the prestigious Peabody Award for her series Confronting Colon Cancer. Couric has also interviewed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Senator Hillary Clinton (her first television interview), Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and Laura Bush.
On May 28, 2008, Couric made a return visit to Today since leaving almost two years to the very day back on May 31, 2006. She made this appearance alongside her evening counterparts, NBC Nightly News’ Brian Williams & ABC World News’ Charles Gibson, to promote an organization called Stand Up to Cancer and raise cancer awareness on all three major television networks; ABC, CBS & NBC. Couric, Gibson and Williams made appearances together on all three major network morning shows, first on CBS’s Early Show, then on NBC’s Today and finally on ABC’s Good Morning America.
CBS
CBS Evening News (2006—present)
Couric announced on April 5, 2006 that she would be leaving the Today Show. Katie Couric Leaving NBC for CBS | Women Lifestyle, Fashion, Health, Beauty and Personality CBS officially confirmed later the same day that Couric would become the new anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News with her first broadcast set for September 5, 2006. Couric would also contribute to 60 Minutes and anchor prime time news specials for CBS. Couric would remain the highest-paid news anchor at $15 million per year.
Couric made her first broadcast as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on September 5, 2006. The program featured a new set, new graphics, and a new theme (composed by prolific movie score composer James Horner,and featuring a voice over from Walter Cronkite). It was the first evening newscast to be simulcast live on the Internet and local radio stations.
CBS had heavily hyped Couric's arrival at the network, hoping to revive the evening news format, but there were suggestions that it had backfired. Although there was much interest during her first week as anchor, CBS Evening News has remained a distant third in viewership, behind ABC World News and NBC Nightly News. While Couric improved over Bob Schieffer, ABC's Charles Gibson has since been widening World News' lead over Evening News.
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric has won the 2008 and 2009 Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast. On March 29, 2009, Couric was awarded with the Emmy Governor’s Award for her broadcasting career.
She has interviewed the likes of President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, John Edwards just after their announcement that Mrs. Edwards' cancer had returned, Israeli Foreign Prime Minister Tzipi Livni, Norah Jones and Michael J. Fox.
Couric led CBS News' coverage of the 2008 Presidential election and anchored live for five hours on election night. Couric was the first network anchor on the ground in Port au Prince after the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. After the BP oil spill Couric anchored from the Gulf Coast weekly and brought much attention to the disaster.
Couric was the only solo female evening news anchor in the United States, until December 21, 2009, when she was joined by Diane Sawyer, who succeeded the retiring Charles Gibson for ABC World News. Couric and Sawyer were previous rivals as the hosts of Today and Good Morning America, respectively, with Sawyer retaining World News' ratings second place in her debut.
60 Minutes (2006—present)
Couric is a 60 Minutes correspondent and contributes six to eight stories a year for the program. Her most famous segment was the first interview with airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger.
The Palin interviews (2008)
The Sarah Palin interviews with Katie Couric were a series of interviews Couric conducted with 2008 U.S. Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. They were recorded and broadcast on television in several programs before the 2008 US presidential election. Couric received the Walter Cronkite Award for Journalism Excellence for the interview.Steve Schmidt, McCain's senior campaign strategist and advisor, later reflected on the interview, saying "I think it was the most consequential interview from a negative perspective that a candidate for national office has gone through."
CBS Reports (2009—present)
Couric is the lead reporter for the current incarnation of the CBS Reports series, which airs across all CBS News platforms. The first series, "CBS Reports: Children of the Recession," won the Columbia School of Journalism's Alfred DuPont Award for Excellence in Journalism. The second series, currently airing, is "CBS Reports: Where America Stands.
@katiecouric (2009—present)
Couric hosts a weekly, one-hour interview program on CBSNews.com. The launch of the webshow has signaled that Couric will stay at CBS for the foreseeable future.
Her first guest was the popular and controversial Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck. Subsequent interviews have included former Vice President Al Gore, actor Hugh Jackman, recording artist Shakira, First Lady Michelle Obama, and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, and teen singer Justin Bieber.
Public image
Couric has been called "America's Sweetheart" largely due to her ratings performance on The Today Show. On May 12, 2003, Couric guest hosted The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as part of a swap campaign, and garnered 45 percent more viewers than on normal nights. She has been the only guest host used by Jay Leno on either of his incarnations of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or his short lived The Jay Leno Show. Leno filled in for her on "The Today Show" that same day. CNN and the New York Daily News noted that instead of using Jay Leno's regular solid desk, "workers cut away the front of her desk to expose her legs while she interviewed American Idol judge Simon Cowell and Austin Powers star Mike Myers".
Other work
In a media crossover to animated film, she was the voice of news-reporter "Katie Current" in the U.S. version of the film Shark Tale. She also made a cameo appearance as a prison guard at Georgia State Prison in Austin Powers in Goldmember. She guest-starred as herself on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown in 1992 and in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace in late 2002. On May 12, 2003, she traded places for a day with Tonight Show host Jay Leno. Couric also co-hosted NBC's live coverage of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from 1991 until 2005. Katie Couric delivered the graduation speech at Princeton University on June 1, 2009. She also works with Carmen Marc Valvo to help publicize the deadliness, yet preventability, of colorectal cancer. On May 16, 2010, Katie Couric received an honorary doctor of science degree for her efforts in raising awareness of colorectal cancer and for her commitment to advancing medical research from Case Western Reserve University, and later gave the university's 2010 convocation keynote address. She hosted a Sesame Street special, "When Families Grieve." The special which aired on PBS on April 14, 2010 dealt with the issues that children go through when a parent dies.
Couric married Jay Monahan in 1989. Couric had her first daughter, Elinor Tully "Ellie" Monahan, on July 23, 1991; her second daughter, Caroline "Carrie" Couric Monahan, was born on January 5, 1996. Jay Monahan died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 42; as a result, Couric is a spokeswoman for colon cancer awareness. She underwent a colonoscopy on-air in March 2000, and, according to a study Colorectal Cancer And The Katie Couric Effect published by Archives of Internal Medicine (July 14, 2003), inspired many others to get checked as well:
Katie Couric's televised colon cancer awareness campaign was temporarily associated with an increase in colonoscopy use in 2 different data sets. This illustrates the possibility that a well-known individual can draw attention and support to worthwhile causes.
She also was very active in the National Hockey League's Hockey Fights Cancer campaign, appearing in some public service announcements and doing voice-overs for several others. Couric is currently a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.
On October 7, 2005, Couric broadcast her own mammogram on the Today show, in the hopes of recreating the "Couric Effect" around the issue of breast cancer. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Her sister Emily Couric, a Virginia Democratic state senator, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 54 on October 18, 2001. Couric gave a eulogy at the funeral. She pointed out that it irritated Emily when people asked her if she was Katie Couric's sister. She told the mourners "I just want you to know I will always be proud to say 'I am Emily Couric's sister'." Couric has two other siblings, Clara Couric Bachelor and John M. Couric Jr.
Couric was the honored guest at the 2004 Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation fall gala. 2004 Friends for Life Fall Gala As the Guest of Honor for the inaugural American Cancer Society Discovery Ball, Couric was recognized for her leadership in increasing cancer awareness and screening.
