Katie Couric’s talk show is still on the rocks , but CNN has denied that the iconic television journalist is heading their way.
Rumors have suggested that Katie Couric will be moving to CNN (and back to former boss Jeff Zucker ), as not-so-good reports regarding her current daytime talk show Katie suggest that the program is dead in the water.
Though the show was picked up by ABC-Disney for a second season, Zucker’s departure for CNN has reportedly created a “very stressful” situation rife with “staffing weirdness” and “no one making decisions.”
Additionally, industry experts have called Katie Couric’s show an “unmitigated disaster” that is collapsing under its own weight, with current execs desperately trying to find a balance between daytime fluff and hard news stories.
So naturally, rumor would have it that Couric, realizing the moribund future of her daytime talk program, would call up Jeff Zucker with an interest in jumping ship for CNN .
But that didn’t happen , and it’s not likely to happen in light of Couric’s contract, which prevents her from joining another cable network for the “foreseeable future.”
Additionally, an inside source said that “Jeff [Zucker] has been making progress at CNN and Katie is not the distraction that he’s looking for.”
“Jeff and Katie are not attached at the hip, they each have their focus on their jobs at hand,” the source continued. And though the two are still close, the source adds: “‘They’re in no rush to be reunited. It took them six years to reunite on a project the last time and no-one should assume it will be any quicker this time.”
Still, rumor persists that Couric might be keen to get out of her deal with ABC if they don’t start letting her pursue more of a news-driven format. New producers of the show have insisted on “evergreen, formulaic daytime segments.”
It’s uncertain what Katie Couric will do, aside from apparently move forward with the second season of Katie , even as ratings drop 30 percent year-over-year. Other rumors have suggested that she has attempted to reconnect with Matt Lauer and The Today Show, but again, no one knows for sure what’s up.
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