Great interview with Katie Couric as she dishes with Disney’s & ABC TV group president Anne Sweeney to discuss her new talk show, new offering and her next move. Hollywoodreporter.com lets you in on Katie Couric’s next move.
The Hollywood Reporter: Katie, what do you envision for the talk show?
Katie Couric: Well, the ink is barely dry. We’ve started to talk about it in broad terms, and I think we’d like the show to be topical and to really capture the zeitgeist of what people are talking about. It will be serious at times, obviously informative and fun. Really, a mixture of things we hope people will be interested in. It’s not going to be a news show, but we’ll be talking about the news and issues that I think people care about, whether it’s bullying or the effect technology has on our kids. It might be a profile of a navy seal after Osama Bin Laden has been killed; it might talk about women in the military and some of the stresses they experience in reentry with their families.
What’s nice is that I’ve been in television news for 32 years now and I have so many different interests and have been exposed to so many fascinating topics throughout the course of my career, whether it was when I was covering the pentagon for NBC, working on the Today show or even in my personal life learning about Cancer research because of my husband. I think I have a wealth of experience that I hope will be brought to bear to help enlighten people about a number of issues. I care so much about so many things. At 54 – I don’t know why I keep insisting on revealing my age — I still have this insatiable curiousity and this need to understand the world around me. I hope that that will translate to and appeal to the audience.
THR: On the news front, are their specific topics that you intend to focus on as you become a member of the news division?
Couric: Wherever I can be helpful. Obviously I love doing newsmaker interviews, and if I can contribute in any way to that, I would love to. I love reporting, getting out in the field and talking to people about various issues. I love figuring out how things that are going on on Capitol Hill impact everyday Americans. I love to just get out and talk to folks and hear what they have to say and bring important issues to light that may not be getting attention. So, I’m here to serve.
THR: Anne, how do you envision Katie fitting into an ABC talent pool that is already vast?
Anne Sweeney: Katie is unique. As I was just listening to her describe the show and the kinds of things that she’s interested in, I found myself getting excited all over again. How curious she is, how well and how often she has engaged me as a member of her audience. The things that she’s interested in and her great ability to take people on this journey with a story. I think she’s a ter
rific addition not just to our news division but also there’s tremendous excitement about the kind of syndicated show that she’s going to do because it isn’t out there. We don’t have a person like Katie Couric, who is willing to really take on the important stories of the day or the stories that are in the zeitgeist.
THR: There is a topical and newsy element to this show. Knowing that news itself doesn’t repeat well, how do you make sense of what works in the daytime landscape and the desire to be topical?
Couric: I think we’ll be looking at it and refining it. We’ve been talking this morning, Anne and I, about how people are just on information overload. I would say there’s TMI and NEU, too much information and not enough understanding. I think for people to have an opportunity to think about issues and to talk about them is important. We’re talking about a wide variety of subjects; it could be anything. I watched a documentary the other night on HBO, which was so incredibly powerful. It was called How to Die in Oregon, about their death-with-dignity law and it profiled this amazingly brave woman. She was 54, so it reminded me a lot of my sister – that was how old she was when she died. It was all about this woman and her family was so amazing. I thought, ‘Gee, if I had a show, I would invite her husband and children, the documentarian and then someone who felt uncomfortable with the Oregon law, and have an intelligent conversation about something that people probably find difficult to talk about but probably need to talk about.’ So that’s a serious topic that I would try to tackle. Then there are a lot of less serious topic that I’m interested in.
To read the entire interview visit Hollywoodreporter.com
