Katie Couric on National Geographic, Returning to Today, Life After Yahoo and Megyn Kelly

Few broadcast journalists have had a career as varied as Katie Couric’s. She’s worked for all three broadcast news organizations, presiding over morning news (co-hosting Today from 1991 to 2006), evening news (anchoring CBS Evening News from 2006-2011) and a daytime talk show (Katie, from 2012-2014). Since 2014, she has served as Yahoo’s global news anchor. Now, Couric is branching out again, producing and hosting Gender Revolution: a Journey with Katie Couric, a National Geographic documentary exploring the changing terrain of gender today. For the documentary, which premieres Feb. 6, Couric traveled the country, speaking with activists, researchers, professors and transgender people spanning several generations. She sat down with Adweek to talk about working with National Geographic, returning to guest host Today in January, her future with Yahoo and Megyn Kelly’s recent leap from Fox News to NBC, which echoed Couric's own decision 11 years ago to leave Today for CBS News. Adweek: How did this documentary come about? Katie Couric: I’ve always been interested in these issues. And I realized a lot of people were interested in these issues, because I kept seeing story after story, learning new terms, seeing on Tinder and Facebook that there were all these changes accommodating this new gender paradigm. When my daughter told me at Stanford, in discussion groups you went around the circle giving your name and pronoun, I thought, well, something’s happening here. The topic wasn’t going away, and it was dominating a lot of coverage. It was bleeding into all different areas—public policy, with laws and the bathroom debate. And it was entering the fashion world. You couldn’t look in any kind of part of society that it didn’t seem to be having an impact on. As a journalist, I wanted to know why, and how, and what it meant and where we were going, and talk to the people who were behind the headlines. That’s very hard to do in this modern media culture when it’s fast, fast, fast. And then you move on to another story. So it’s a real privilege for me to be able to take a topic like this, dissect it and try to connect the dots for people. [kickout id="1"] How did you end up partnering with National Geographic? I just went to them and I said, "Hey, I want to do this." I had met Courteney [Monroe, CEO of National Geographic global television networks] at Morgan Freeman’s premiere of his series The Story of God and learned that she liked my work. And I thought, wow, National Geographic is doing some interesting things. They’re taking their mission statement of exploration to include ideas and not just places. Maybe they’d be interested. So we went to Washington and met with her, and coincidentally, they were doing a whole issue on gender. She was like, "Shazam, we’ve got this thing cooking. This would be a great companion piece to what we already have." At what point did you realize that you needed two hours to delve into the topic? I really wanted it to be a 12- to 16-hour docuseries. I thought there was that much information and that the topic was that important. But they didn’t really let me do that. We knew all along that we were going to have to make some very difficult choices about what we were going to include. And we wanted it to be as well rounded as possible. We wanted to reflect as many different situations and people and socioeconomic levels and geographic regions as possible, and we wanted it to be diverse, so we really worked hard to make that happen. Have you talked with National Geographic about doing other projects? I’m really impressed with what Courteney is doing with National Geographic. She’s really transforming the brand—I’m so sick of that word!—upping their game and doing interesting, creative things while staying true to the mission statement and the kind of ethos of National Geographic. So if there’s another project that they’re interested in and I’m curious and passionate about it, I’d totally be open to it. They’ve been incredible collaborators. I feel like I’m in very good hands. [kickout id="3"] In addition to this, your production company has been involved in a lot of different projects, like podcasts and the upcoming Lifetime movie about the Flint, Mich., drinking-water crisis. You’ve made a very concerted effort in recent years to … Diversify. As you well know, the landscape has changed so dramatically. The fragmentation of media has been difficult in terms of not providing that uniting community experience of the whole country gathering around watching Walter Cronkite do the evening news. On the other hand, it’s given content creators all these outlets. And I have a lot of content I want to create. I have a lot of things that I would like to try, scripted and unscripted. And I have a lot of things I care about. So it’s been an opportunity to also work with different organizations who do have different missions, and it’s been exciting creatively for me instead of staying in one lane doing news every single day with one company, which I did for many, many years and loved. But everyone needs to spread their wings and try new things. And obviously, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t shy away from new challenges. Your Yahoo deal goes until later this year, correct? Yes. If there’s no more Yahoo before your deal ends, what happens at that point? Well, my understanding is there is going to be a Yahoo, and it’s going to be part of a bigger media organization, a bigger communications company. And I think that could provide great opportunities to be on an even more impactful platform. I’m still doing a lot of work for Yahoo. In other words, I never sleep. I’m pretty much working 24/7, which I obviously love. Yahoo’s been great in terms of letting me take advantage of these opportunities, which is wonderful, but also I’ve done a lot of work I’m really proud of for them as well. Do you want to wait and see whatever Yahoo’s next iteration is before you decide what your next step will be after the current deal expires? Yeah. I’ll be really interested in seeing sort of philosophically what Verizon wants to create and make and if their goals and my passions, in fact, align. But I think they have the potential to do some really, really exciting things. You made your triumphant return to the Today show last month. Everyone’s saying it. I feel like I should be like going into the studios in slo-mo with “Chariots of Fire” right behind me. [Singing that movie’s theme song] “Da-da-da-da-DAH-da…” [kickout id="2"] What was that experience like? Do you miss it? It was really fun. I do miss it sometimes. I miss the camaraderie of the team. As cheesy as it sounds with “America’s First Family,” which was the song when I was there, you do feel kind of like a family. I think part of it is because of the ungodly hours. I made some really good friends during my years on the show. I miss them, and I also miss this weird everyday connection I felt with that audience. I felt like a lot of times they were my friends. You go through a lot of different things in your life. I had two children when I was on that show. [My husband] Jay was diagnosed with colon cancer and passed away on that show. My sister died. I had relationships that people read about. So I feel like I have this intimacy with the audience. When my kids were born. I had grandmas in Dubuque crocheting blankets for them. And when Jay died, I must have gotten 10,000 sympathy cards from people. There’s something very special about that relationship. When you’re in different outlets and different venues doing different projects, it’s harder to feel that everyday, kindred spirit feeling with an audience. So sometimes I miss that. 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. 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. 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? 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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Katie Couric on National Geographic, Returning to Today, Life After Yahoo and Megyn Kelly

Her new documentary explores the complexities of gender

Jason Lynch

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