Katie Couric Comments on Megyn Kelly’s Move to NBC News

By A.J. Katz 

Yahoo global news anchor Katie Couric has been a towering presence in the national television news landscape for more than 25 years, serving as a co-anchor for Today from 1991-2006, anchoring The CBS Evening News from 2006-2011, and hosting a daytime talker (Katie) from 2012-2014 before taking on her current role at Yahoo News.

Our Adweek colleague Jason Lynch recently interviewed Couric for a piece which was published this morning. Couric answered questions on a variety of subjects, including her time at Yahoo News, guest co-anchoring Today during the first week of 2017, as well as her thoughts on Megyn Kelly’s move to NBC News. If there is anyone who can relate to Kelly’s situation, it’s probably Couric, one of the most influential female TV journalists there is, and someone who has bounced around a bit. Here’s some of what the former NBC Newser had to say.

ADWEEK: Before Megyn Kelly made her big decision last month, you were the last female news star to go through that situation, where it seemed like the whole country knew your contract was up.

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COURIC: Yes. One time, I was in a van, handing out soup and oranges to homeless people in New York, which I used to do with my kids sometimes. I handed this man his soup, and he said, “Katie, so what’s going on? Are you going to CBS?” And I was like, “Are you kidding me?” [laughs] It was so crazy. Yeah, it’s a strange experience to be speculated about like that.

ADWEEK: Did you reach out to Megyn at all, as one of the only people in the country who could understand what she was going through?

COURIC: No, I didn’t. I would have been obviously happy to talk to her if she had wanted to talk to me. I didn’t want to impose myself. I think that people have to really make those decisions on their own: What’s right for them. What’s right for their situations, for what they really care about, for their passions, their family life. But I did say, gosh, here we go and I know what that’s like. I also want to be respectful of the process that she was going through, as she made a really big career decision. And I think it’ll be really fun to watch what she does and I’m rooting for her. I think she’s really talented. But it’s hard. It can be a difficult landscape to navigate and I think her work will shine through. I think NBC will do everything it can to make her a success and that’s really important. You want to have a platform that really values and supports you. So I think she’s going to be great.

 

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