Katie Couric: ‘Today’ Wanted Her Back

Former Today host Katie Couric has finally confirmed what the rumor mill has been saying all along. She was indeed briefly, if not entirely seriously, contacted for a possible return to Today. In the short video clip I’ve posted below from HowardTV, you will see that Howard Stern pressured Couric (in a nice way) to say what she planned to do about the whole Today show controversy.

Today was the leading morning news program for 16 years. However, in the wake of Couric’s departure, the NBC program suffered a collapse in ratings, allowing it to be eclipsed by the new number one, ABC’s Good Morning America.

Today also experienced a wave of unfavorable publicity over the firing of Ann Curry — which became a public relations disaster when the details of the so-called Operation Bambi were revealed.

For the most part, Katie Couric has risen above the rumors swirling that she might be asked to return and fix the whole mess.

However, yesterday she confessed to Howard Stern that, yes, “Matt and I had talked about possibly teaming up and doing a show at some point. There were some cautious — I would say cautious — overtures to me to possibly come back to the Today show but then they sort of evaporated…”

How serious were the overtures in question? Watch the video for yourself, and make up your own mind. I’m not entirely confident that it wasn’t just a lot of talk that never had much chance of going anywhere.

“For me that was the best job,” she said when Stern pressed her to say whether or not she’d go back.

That sounds like an opening that the producers of the Today show might take notice of — if they were in the mood to pay her price.

Here’s the video clip in question:

She also said that she had a little crush on Matt Lauer back in his younger local TV days because he was “funny and quick.” That’s another comment I’m going to take to mean that it was a very little crush. Maybe so little that you couldn’t see it at all. Heh.

Do you think Katie Couric will be back on Today?

[Katie Couric photo by s_bukley / Shutterstock.com]